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COPWUGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND 
HIS WORK 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE RURAL TEACHER 
AND HIS WORK 



IN COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP, IN SCHOOL 

ADMINISTRATION, AND IN MASTERY 

OF THE SCHOOL SUBJECTS 



BY 



HAROLD WALDSTEIN FOGHT 

SPECIALIST IN RURAL SCHOOL PRACTICE, UNITED STATES BUREAU 

OF EDUCATION ; AUTHOR OF " THE AMERICAN RURAL 

SCHOOL," "RURAL DENMARK AND ITS 

SCHOOLS," ETC. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1917 

All rights reserved 



.Viz 



Copyright, 1917, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1917. 



JUL 12 1317 



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J. S. Cll^thlll^^ ^"o. - lliTwhk \ Sinltli C' 

Norw..o<l. Ma.ss., T.S.A. 



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MY COLLEAGUES IN THE UNITED STATES 
BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

THIS BOOK 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

BY THE AUTHOR 



DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES 

BY 

The Committee on Resolutions 

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 
SALT LAKE CITY, 1913 

Gradual reorganization of the rural school system. — Educators have for 
some time realized that rural schools cannot fill their mission well so long as 
they remain complementary to city schools. That it is quite possible and 
practicable to organize schools for the open country and rural villages, un- 
affected by city schools, has been demonstrated in a definite way by leading 
agricultural nations of Europe. The beginnings are being made in some 
parts of the United States to reestablish the old principles of "equal rights 
for all," by providing in the country, for the country people, as complete a 
system of education as is being offered to the youth of the cities. But these 
beginnings, while encouraging, are at present wholly inadequate. The re- 
organization must provide, within reach of all country children, carefully 
graded elementary schools, and a sufficient number of rural high schools 
adapted to the particular needs of the given community, to the end of giving 
country folk a genuine farm culture, and a scientific knowledge of agriculture, 
without going away from home to secure it. Such reorganization may be 
expected to furnish the trained leadership required to put our rural population 
on a more stable social-economic basis. 

Rural teaching as a life profession a first essential in this reorganisation. 

— The trained leadership needed in country districts cannot be realized until 

a staff of teachers, professionally trained and with the right vision and power, 

establish themselves there as jjermanent teachers. The peripatetic one- or 

two-term teachers have failed to establish themselves in country leadership, 

and must go. 

Sub-committee on The Rural School. 



PREFACE 

This book is written as a companion volume to The 
American Rural School, which was first published some 
five years ago and, in that time, has met with a most grati- 
fying reception from the public. The new book, like The 
American Rural School, addresses itself to the great army 
of rural school teachers, superintendents, and school ofB- 
cers ; members of teachers' reading circles, normal school 
and high school training classes, and all others who are 
interested in the greatest measure of progress in American 
rural life. Much of what was pointed out in the former 
book as desirable and expedient has actually come to pass. 
The new and revitalized rural school is taking form, thanks 
to the nation-wide propaganda which has been carried on 
by educators, philosophers, poets, preachers, and sociol- 
ogists of every degree, these last few years. 

Still, the beginnings only have been made. There is 
much of isolation and barrenness in rural life yet to over- 
come ; the farm folk must attain better organization both 
for social and economic ends ; and a new kind of life out- 
look must take hold on rural communities. 

The factors entering into the socialization of our present- 
day rural life are many. But it is safe to say that none is 
more important than the rural school. For it is school 
education that must furnish the leadership so essential to 
the solution of the problems of rural life. Without strong 



viii PREFACE 

men and women imbued with the spirit of masterful action, 
and thoroughly prepared for their work through study in 
the redirected rural schools, there can be no satisfactory 
adjustment of rural life. Let no one misunderstand this 
matter. The propagandist beginnings mentioned above, 
directed by educators and social philosophers speaking 
from the school rostrum and in the public assembly, can 
only call the attention of the rural folk to their needs and 
suggest remedies. The ultimate readjustment will come at 
the hands of a new generation of farmers who are now chil- 
dren in school. The present task of the rural school is 
therefore clearly defined. 

Any form of education, to be effective, must reflect the 
daily life and interests of the community in which it is 
employed. With us, agriculture is the chief, primary in- 
dustry ; consequently our rural education must be agri- 
cultural in nature. By this is meant vastly more than the 
teaching of agriculture as a school subject. The school 
must give expression to many things, chief among which 
are: (i) Good scientific farming, rendering ample returns 
for labor and capital employed ; and (2) a rural social life 
satisfactory to those living it. Clearly, then, this means 
that the rural school must prepare better farmers and better 
farmers' wives ; it must make the occupation of farming 
more remunerative, and life in the open country more at- 
tractive and more worth living as well as freer from outside 
domination. 

Before the rural school can fully merit its place as chief 
agency in this social-economic reorganization, several im- 
portant changes must be brought about. Some of them, 
indeed, are in the process of changing at this time. Chief 
of mention are: (i) The reorganization of the schools on 
modern business principles with provision for a large unit 



PREFACE ix 

or organization and adequate maintenance, so that ulti- 
mately all rural children may receive equal educational 
advantages ; (2) the professionalization of the entire 
working staff of administrators, supervisors, and instruc- 
tors ; and (3) the redirection of the entire rural school 
course of study, making it both more thoroughly cultural 
and more immediately practical. 

It is manifest to any one taking the trouble to analyze 
the above enumeration that of the three factors the teach- 
ing force or instructors should properly stand first. Even 
with a first-class school organization together with efficient 
board members and supervisors, if the teachers are lacking 
in vision and power, the new leadership must fail of reali- 
zation. 

The teachers who would have part in the reorganization 
of our rural life must at least attain this tripod of educational 
acquirements : (i) Be strong enough to establish themselves 
as leaders in the community where they are to live and 
labor ; (2) have a good grasp on the organization and 
management of the new kind of farm school ; and (3) show 
expert ability in dealing with the redirected school cur- 
riculum. 

The book is built up around this educational tripod. Its 
legs become respectively Parts I, II, and III of the test. 
Part I emphasizes as essential that the teachers actually 
live the farm life they would assist in improving. Part II 
deals with the intricacies and complexities of school organ- 
ization and management. Part III is devoted to the new 
subjects essential to every complete rural school and to the 
best methods of presenting both the new and the old sub- 
ject matter. 

The subject is so broad that a book could easily have 
been written on each of the three great topics. No one of 



X PREFACE 

these has been treated exhaustively. Only the main lead- 
ing-threads have been indicated, and it is hoped the readers 
will make these their guides to further study as indicated 
in question studies and selected readings which form an 
important part of each chapter. 

The book is the result of many years spent in practical 
work for rural school and rural life improvement. The 
author has had particular opportunity in the Government 
servdce to study at first hand school conditions in every 
state of the Union. This has enabled him to treat the 
subject from a national rather than a sectional point of 
view, as has been the case with many other books on this 
subject. 

Acknowledgment for assistance rendered is due a great 
many educators throughout the country; while special 
thanks are due my colleagues in the United States Bu- 
reau of Education for valuable suggestions and the use of 
hitherto unused diagrams, charts, and photographs. 

H. W. F. 

Washington, D.C, 

September, 19 16. 



CONTENTS 



Preface vii 

Introduction : The Rural School Teacher and His Opportunity i 

PART I. THE RURAL SCHOOL TEACHER AS 
COMMUNITY LEADER 

I. Our Changing National Life and the Schools . . • i7 

II. The Rural Community Problem at Close Hand . . 32 

III. Fundamental Agencies in Rural Life: The Home . . 44 

IV. The Church and Allied Agencies in Rural Life . . 52 
V. Other Educational Agencies and Organizations Adapted 

TO Cooperate with the Rural Teachers ... 69 

VI. Preparing Teachers for Rural Leadership ... 94 



PART 11. THE TEACHER AS ORGANIZER AND 
ADMINISTRATOR 

I. Rural School Organization and Administration 

II. Professional Supervision of Rural Schools 

III. The Redirected One-teacher School . 

IV. Coming of the Real Rural Community School . 
V. Rural High Schools 

VI. Rural Continuation Schools and Extension Courses 



119 
136 
150 
176 
194 
207 



PART III. THE TEACHER AS MAKER OF THE 
REVITALIZED COURSE OF STUDY 

I. The Reconstructed Course of Study Based on Rural 

Needs 225 

11. The Traditional Subjects and the New Emphasis . . 232 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

III. Nature Environment the Background of the New 

Curriculum 261 

IV. The iManual Arts and Home Economics . . . .281 
V. Hygiene and Rural Community Sanitation . . . 292 

VI. The Rural School and Community Recreation . . 305 
VII. Daily Program and Model Curriculum for the One- 
teacher School 319 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 345 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND 
HIS WORK 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND 
HIS WORK 

INTRODUCTION 

THE RURAL SCHOOL TEACHER AND HIS 
OPPORTUNITY 

A Farmer's Charge. — Recently a leading farmer of the 
community entered the writer's ofhce in quest of a teacher. 

'' Send us a teacher," he said, '' who has some compre- 
hension of rural life and its needs, and is willing to settle 
down as one of us and help solve our problems. He must 
be cultured and practical, and above everything else, under- 
stand that many of his opportunities for good in the com- 
munity lie outside the four walls of the school." 

'* Our teachers for the last ten years," he continued, 
" have spent five scant days a week with us, and have then 
hurried away to town where their real interests are. They 
never seemed to realize that they had opportunities for real 
leadership beyond the classroom." 

This farmer was right. Himself a graduate of a state 
agricultural college, he understood well the needs of present- 
day rural life, feeling keenly that the teachers who must 
eventually take the greatest responsibility for giving the 
farm community its leadership and correct outlook on life, 
are not fully aware of their responsibilities and the great 



2 INTRODUCTION 

Opportunities in this vast new field, forced to our attention 
as it has been, through recent changes in American agri- 
cultural life. 

Our Changing National Life. — As a nation we have 
long since passed from the pioneer stage of national life and 
the days when every farm place produced all that it needed 
to sustain life, independent of the city. The nation has 
for some time been in the midst of a period of exploitation 
of the soil and what grows on it and what lies under it, but 
we are now getting ready to enter upon an era of husband- 
man farming, when all people must understand the signifi- 
cance of the holiness of the soil. This calls for a new, 
intelligent leadership for the open country ; and to bring 
this to pass we must somehow get a more effective kind of 
rural school. 

In pioneer days school tasks were limited mainly to teach- 
ing the three R's. The average home was still a mighty 
teacher, instructing the children in the common handcrafts 
which have recently been falling more and more to the lot 
of the school. In this way It appears that the teacher's 
field of activity Is becoming greatly enlarged with the open- 
ing of the new age of husbandman farming. 

It Is fair to presume that the first rural teacher In America 
was town bred and town trained, had city wa3^s and sym- 
pathies, and brought with him to the country a town course 
of study. But In the early days this was of little conse- 
quence ; for then even city life, so called, was provincial, 
and really little more than an overgrown rural life. But 
times have changed. Our towns have become mighty 
centers of commerce and manufacture. The needs of city 
life have found expression In courses of study preparing 
children for the varied activities there. Meanwhile, the 
needs of rural life have been slower to find expression. In 



INTRODUCTION 3 

many sections of our country the demands of modern agri- 
culture have not yet been sufficiently strong to bring into 
being schools adequate to modern needs ; while, inversely, 
in other sections the pioneer-day schools still linger on, 
retarding the growth of new leadership and correct outlook 
on agricultural life. 

Rural Teachers not Trained for Real Community Schools. 
— It is undeniably true that the professional schools in 
charge of the preparation of teachers, and our general 
educational leadership have been slow to recognize the 
need of specific training for rural schools. There are still 
good schoolmen among us who insist that any one who 
has taken a good general academic and professional course 
in college or normal school should be able to teach satis- 
factorily in rural districts. Fortunately for the future of 
American agricultural life, these beliefs no longer bear the 
weight they used to have, and men argue with good reason 
that if kindergarten teachers and teachers of English and 
History must have special preparation for their work, then 
why not also the rural teachers who come face to face with 
the increasingly difficult problem of reshaping rural com- 
munity life ! 

The average rural teacher in the United States to-day has 
little specific preparation for his work. A great many teach- 
ers go into the schools with a surprisingly small store of 
academic and professional knowledge of any kind. A 
country-wide survey of the efficiency and preparation of 
rural teachers recently completed by the National Bureau 
of Education has disclosed the fact that almost four per 
cent of all the teachers now engaged in rural school work 
have had less than eight years of elementary school prepa- 
ration ; that 32.3 per cent have had no professional prep- 
aration whatever, and that only one-tenth of one per cent 



4 INTRODUCTION 

report attendance at institutions of learning making a 
specialty of preparing rural teachers.^ 

Intimate Relation of Teacher Preparation and Professional 
Rewards. — The figures just quoted are startling ; still 
they might have been worse. The blame can in no sense 
be placed at the door of the teacher ; but rather on the 
prevailing system of school organization. And this system, 
again, is what it is to-day because of the rapid transition in 
our national life from pioneering, through land exploitation, 
to scientific agriculture. In other words, school conditions, 
as they have prevailed in the past, were due to economic 
conditions, largely beyond human control. But now the 
nation is entering upon a new era, throughout which science 
and professional preparation must set up new life standards 
for the agricultural population. In this great work there 
can be little place for amateur teachers. 

The amount of salary received by the teacher is a measure 
of his efficiency on the one hand and of the value in which 
his services are held by the people on the other. Just now 
the average annual salary of all public school teachers in 
our country is $490. The salary of rural teachers is con- 
siderably less. It is scant consolation to know that the 
teacher's pecuniary earnings come in the form of salary 
and not in wages, and that in addition to the money income 
he has many real satisfactions of an altruistic nature. All 
this is true, but it remains that the nation has placed a 
low valuation on the teacher's services, with the result 
that the nation has had to be satisfied with much mediocre 
teaching. 

It is immaterial to the present discussion whether better 
professional preparation shall precede increased salaries 
or whether increased salaries must come first. Both are 

1 Bulletin 1914, No. 49, United States Bureau of Education. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

essential in the new school organization. Probably these 
two essentials must come hand in hand. 

Great Opportunity for Teachers in Rural Leadership. — 
In any event it is a noticeable fact that scores of teachers 
with good academic and professional preparation are con- 
tinuously going into rural communities where they build 
up the schools and reorganize community interests so satis- 
factorily as to become practically indispensable. Such 
teachers are irnbued with the right spirit. They have at- 
tained somehow a correct outlook on country life. In in- 
stances of this kind, the school patrons are usually quick 
to respond. Their appreciation takes the form of increased 
salary to keep pace with the increased value of the teacher's 
services. In other words, when all is said, much depends 
on the teacher's capacity for leadership. In the long run, 
he is quite sure to receive what he is worth to the com- 
munity. 

Never before in our history was there such opportunity 
for well-equipped young men and women in the field of 
rural leadership. An awakening is going on in the primary 
institutions of rural life as at no time in the past. Urgent 
demands come for teachers from the newly organized farm 
community schools and from higher educational institu- 
tions which are themselves striving to prepare teachers, 
local agricultural experts, and other country life leaders. 

Years ago the nations of continental Europe faced the 
serious problem of diminishing returns from the land, and 
found a satisfactory solution in a new type of education. 
In our country a similar transition is coming about. A new 
generation of rural-leadership teachers is beginning to come 
into its own. These teachers will take the responsibility 
of preparing the educated men and women who, in their 
turn, are to furnish rural districts with the practical aggres- 



6 INTRODUCTION 

siveness, the correct outlook on life, and the finer idealism, 
which are all essential to wholesome agricultural life. 

Illustration from Danish Rural Schools. — The older 
European civilization is replete with examples of such 
teacher-leadership. Denmark affords, perhaps, the best 
illustration. Here the central figure in rural life is the 
school teacher. At least he is one of two central figures — 
the other being the local pastor. He, more than any one 
else, should have the credit for the enlightened, wholesome, 
and contented rural life that is now being pursued by more 
than sixty per cent of the nation. He has rightly won his 
place as community leader by making himself indispensable 
to his patrons. 

The close of the German war in 1864 had left the country 
war-scarred and practically bankrupt. The system of 
agriculture in use was indifferent and the peasant classes 
were poor and often illiterate. The rural schools were bad 
and could do very little to meet the crying needs of the 
times. But out of these very hardships a new educational 
philosophy was promulgated. It taught that education 
must become universal, practical, and democratic ; that 
hereafter the nation's defense must be built on the founda- 
tion of broad intelligence, rooted in the love of God and 
home and native land — and the school teacher became its 
herald. 

In the short time that has passed since then, Denmark 
has become the most scientific among agricultural peoples. 
The sole explanation is the one given here, that the country 
has been wise enough to organize a most complete system 
of rural schools under the leadership of carefully prepared 
teachers, well paid and of permanent tenure, who live in 
the heart of the community month by month and year by 
year. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

The New Teacher — a Permanent, Professional Teacher. 

— It is perfectly true that many of our best and most pains- 
taking teachers are devoting their Hves to teaching in the 
open country, accomphshing great good there. But, un- 
fortunately, these teachers are a very small body as com- 
pared to the surprisingly large army who are mere peripa- 
tetic amateurs with little intention of becoming permanent 
teachers. 

One thing is certain, the type of teacher who spends five 
days out of the week in the school community and the week- 
end elsewhere is not the right kind of teacher to master our 
pressing rural problems. These call for a broad under- 
standing of rural needs ; an almost sublime faith in self 
and the importance of the new tasks ; and a willingness 
to forego some of the pleasures and greater conveniences 
of the larger centers of population — entirely aside from a 
good academic and professional preparation for school 
work. 

It is not to the credit of our rural population to have to 
admit that the average teacher must endure considerable 
hardships in the pursuit of his work in the open country. 
This has reference particularly to poor construction of the 
school plant, with its unsatisfactory equipment, and to 
inconvenient and often intolerable housing and uncongen- 
ial social environment. But all of these things must be 
faced and corrected. It is in such matters as these that 
the real teachers show their true metal. Teachers who 
flinch before the many obstacles encountered while the 
reorganization is under way, are not worthy of the new 
leadership. They should shun teaching, which at best is 
difficult and a real man's or a strong woman's task. 

John Tracy, a Teacher of the New School. — People 
often ask: Is it worth the while? Does it really pay? It 



8 INTRODUCTION 

might be well to let John Tracy answer these queries. The 
name is an assumed one, as the owner does not wish to have 
his real name used. 

This teacher came as a young man into one of the richest 
communities of a great state in the Middle West a few years 
ago. He might have done exactly what his predecessors 
had done before him — followed the beaten rut of estab- 
lished school monotony for a term of seven months at forty- 
five dollars per month, and then have passed from the 
community, leaving not the slightest feeling of regret 
behind. But Tracy was different. He came into the 
community imbued with a vision of great, untouched possi- 
bilities for school and community reorganization. To tell 
in detail his life story does not lie within the scope of these 
pages. Let it suffice that he brought new life to the com- 
munity. His spirit was contagious ; whatever he touched 
became quickened with new activity. The old schoolhouse 
soon proved too small to house the varied community 
interests that Tracy enlisted. . The farmers' institute, the 
women's club, the choral society, and the agricultural club, 
all demanded better quarters. This led to building a mod- 
ern schoolhouse. Meanwhile, the budding, grafting, and 
layering, the soil studies and crop rotations, craved more 
space than the small half acre of school ground could offer. 
This accordingly was enlarged by purchase into four acres^ 
and is now used as playground, experiment plots, gardens, 
and home garden for the teacher. He has recently married 
and lives happily in a comfortable cottage erected through 
community donations, at one corner of the grounds. 

Does it pay in dollars and cents? John Tracy began 
with a poor school plant in a rich but neglected community, 
at forty-five dollars for a term of seven months. Now he 
is the acknowledged leader of the community ; he is housed 



INTRODUCTION 9 

at community expense, and receives one hundred and twenty- 
five dollars per month for ten months of the year, although 
he teaches only nine. Assuredly it pays ! 

The Teacher Fitting Himself for Leadership. — At this 
juncture it may well be asked just what the ambitious 
teacher or student-in-training shall do to fit himself for the 
new rural leadership. Just what must the academic and 
professional preparation be for the work ? Briefly answered : 
The general academic preparation of the new kind of teacher 
must first of all be much deeper and more comprehensive 
than is the academic foundation of the average teacher 
now at work in the field. Our agricultural population is 
suffering as much from the want of a vision-giving breadth 
of culture as from the want of technical preparation for 
their life work. They need, in fact, a great measure of 
both to make them real thinkers, able to organize their 
agricultural life without outside let or hindrance. Only 
teachers who are themselves students and thinkers of rea- 
sonable maturity can hope to counteract the effects of the 
comparative isolation from which the open country suffers 
and be able to assist the people there to think much and 
read broadly so that ultimately a new and ennobling altruism 
shall become part of our rural community life. 

A broad measure of academic culture should, therefore, 
be considered a first essential to all rural teaching success. 
To this must be added a reasonable knowledge of the gen- 
eral phases of teaching, including a knowledge of child 
study, psychology, philosophy, and history of education, 
together with school management and methods of study. 

But entirely aside from these, the rural teacher to succeed 
well must have a good measure of specialized preparation 
for his difficult tasks. This preparation should embrace : 
(i) an intimate knowledge of the problems and needs of 



lo INTRODUCTION 

rural life, In order that he may take his place in the com- 
munity leadership discussed above ; (2) a thorough under- 
standing of modern school organization and administra- 
tion, so that he may become an intelligent leader in the 
work to convert the prevailing old-time school into an 
institution suited to modern agricultural needs ; and (3) 
a mastery of the new subject matter in the course of study 
which farm folk must know in order to get the most out of 
Hfe. 

Knowledge of Rural Life Problems, a Chief Factor in 
Teaching-Success. — To have been born and reared in 
the country is no proof in itself that a person understands 
the needs of rural life, although it is probably easier for 
such a person to get the right outlook on life in the open 
country than would be the case with the average city-bred 
person. Experience has proved that whether the teacher 
is from rural district or town, he knows little, in a concrete 
way, about the fundamental economic and social problems 
that underlie modern agricultural life and hence are of 
vital importance in school conduct. It may seem harsh 
to say, but it is nevertheless true, that a teacher who does 
not, in the study of these rural problems, find inspiration 
enough for a redoubled effort in his work, and vision clear 
enough to see and do the tasks of the new rural community 
school — had better retire from teaching and seek a less 
trying occupation. 

The higher professional schools are beginning to be of 
some assistance on this phase of our problem, by offering 
courses in rural sociology and farm economics. In a num- 
ber of normal schools special rural school departments 
are built around these studies as fundamental. The teach- 
ers who are actively engaged in the schools, can master 
this important field through carefully chosen reading courses 



INTRODUCTION ii 

and by getting in touch as much as possible with experi- 
enced country Hfe workers, in real field studies. The pur- 
pose of Part I of this book is to assist the teacher to gain a 
mastery of these various rural, social-economic problems 
and, so far as feasible, to make clear the great possibilities 
in this but lately explored field. 

Importance of a Good Understanding of the Organization 
and Administration of the New Community Schools. — 
The old-time teacher limited his tasks to the four walls of 
the school. He taught a few traditional subjects and 
dreamed of no innovations. The schoolhouse was con- 
structed without regard for sanitary safeguards, as no one 
worried about such things in those days. The school was 
a place for book-learning and had no concern with the gen- 
eral community welfare. Now things are changed. The 
modern rural school is a very different kind of institution. 
Its tasks are no longer limited by the four walls of the school. 
The effective school nowadays goes so far as to project its 
activities into the homes of the community, preparing the 
farm youth for active, contented life on the farm. 

This calls for a modern school plant, for enlarged school 
grounds, and for many other things unknown a few years 
ago. There must be reorganization from the ground up. 
Not alone is the organization of the school greatly changed, 
but its administration has become rnore complex as the 
problems to be considered have multiplied. All in all, it 
takes a teacher with a specialized knowledge of these phases 
of school life to master the new situation. This side of 
the teacher's special preparation is considered in Part II 
of the book. 

A Mastery of the Revitalized Course of Study, Essential 
to Success. — The new school curriculum is based on what 
the farmer and his wife ought to know. There is, first of 



12 INTRODUCTION 

all, the human element to be considered. This includes 
health and happiness. Then comes the preparation of 
the members of the family for the privileges and responsi- 
bilities of citizenship, and, finally, their right to a prepara- 
tion that will help them make a good living from the soil. 
Any course of study that includes less than this will not 
answer the new demands. A teacher who is not reasonably 
well prepared to teach some part of this curriculum cannot 
be considered well fitted for the new schools. Part III 
shows how the tasks of an agricultural population must 
be rooted to the nature environment in which they dwell, 
and it lays particular emphasis on those things which are 
of greatest value to the teachers who are eager to set them- 
selves abreast of the new spiritualization in country life. 

Each chapter of the book closes with a set of suggestive 
questions and special studies which are intended (i) to 
stimulate class discussion, and (2) to assist in further re- 
search. No one is able to gain sufficient inspiration and 
breadth of vision for vital leadership from reading a single 
book. Only as a result of broad reading, mature thinking, 
and sensible application of both of these to everyday work 
does the teacher acquire a real mastery of his chosen field. 

One of the chief purposes of the present readings is to 
make the teacher conversant with the best thought in the 
rural life field. Every teacher should own a well-chosen 
collection of such books. A complete bibliography and 
shorter buying-lists are given at the back of the book 
from which teachers can make their selections. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Summarize your reasons for believing that rural teachers should have 
a distinctive preparation for their work. 



INTRODUCTION 13 

Is it fair to say that the new kind of rural teacher must take the greatest 
responsibiHty for giving the rural community its needed leadership and 
correct outlook on agricultural life? Explain. 

Show wherein the responsibilities of the rural teacher have been in- 
creased vastly since the passing of the three R's school of pioneer days. 

Prove that rural teachers have, in the past, not been prepared for work 
in real farm community schools. 

What is your interpretation of an "amateur teacher"? Show how 
such a teacher usually gets all the salary he earns. 

Do you believe the statement that in the long run the teacher is quite 
sure to receive what he is worth to the community? Explain in full. 

Do you spend your week-ends in the school community? If not, how 
do you justify your action? 

Enumerate the essentials of a permanent, professional teacher. 

Do you know some John Tracy in your community? If so, tell his 
story. 

Defend this statement : The academic preparation of the rural teacher 
must be more comprehensive and specialized than it has been heretofore. 

Just why must the new kind of teacher have a thorough understanding 
of present-day rural life problems ? 

To what extent should every rural teacher have a knowledge of the 
problems of modern school organization and administration? 

What is meant by revitalizing the rural school course of study ? 

Special Studies 

The following subjects are suggested for further research. They may 
be used for written themes, for written or oral summaries, for class reports, 
or in such other ways as the instructor may direct : 

"The School of the Future. " — Bailey's Outlook to Nature, pp. 97-137. 

"The Training of Country Teachers." — Carney's Country Life and 
the Country School, pp. 252-280. 

"The Teacher Who is the Citizen-Maker. " — Eggleston and Bruere's 
The Work of the Rural School, pp. 193-223. 

"Salaries and Tenure of Rural Teachers." — Foght's The American 
Rural School, pp. 92-115. 

"A New Teacher. " — Cubberley's Rural Life and Education, pp. 283- 
306. 



PART I 

THE RURAL SCHOOL TEACHER AS COMMUNITY 

LEADER 



CHAPTER I 
Our Changing National Life and the Schools 

It is essential, first of all, to review the rapid changes 
that our nation has passed through since it was founded, in 
order that we may get a clear conception of the problems 
of rural life as they now present themselves. In this way 
only is it possible to make clear that a system of schools 
which answered well enough the needs of the pioneer Ameri- 
cans as long as these people lived the early *' shut-in" life 
on the new continent, can no longer suffice in this age of 
tremendous industrial changes and international relation- 
ships. In a similar way it is well to learn how the earlier 
individualistic ideals of education are beginning to yield 
to education for the larger social group — education which 
stands for social efficiency. 

It is now the purpose to outline briefly the history of 
American rural life and schools from the first. 

The Pioneers and Educational Beginnings. — Our nation 
is comparatively young on this continent ; yet in the brief 
span of three centuries that we have possessed the land four 
distinct types of farm folk have appeared. These agrarian 
types may be classed for convenience as the pioneers, the 
household economy farmers, the exploiters, and the hus- 
bandman farmers. 

The pioneers are first seen by us as they push their way 
through the foothills and towards the mountains, away 
from the transplanted European civilization in New England 
c 17 



i8 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

village and Virginia plantation. They lived their lives on 
the edge of the unconquered wilderness largely unaffected 
by the older coast settlements. Their home and school 
life may, therefore, be considered as typically American, and 
offers excellent opportunity as a first point of contact for 
the study of our educational beginnings. This interesting 
period of American life closed for the Eastern States as early 
as 1800, but continued in the new regions west of the 
Appalachians up to 1835. 

The pioneers lived highly individualistic lives, self-cen- 
tered, giving all their thought and energy to the preserva- 
tion of the immediate family group. Existence with them 
was centered in making a living for wife and children. Such 
simple wants as they had were satisfied from near-by forest 
and field, which supplied the raw materials to be converted 
into food, clothing, and shelter by all the members of the 
family circle. 

It is of interest to the reader to know that the pioneer 
home was the real educator in the early day. School edu- 
cation, as such, was counted of little value among these 
forerunners of civilization. Some member of the family 
was occasionally able to instruct, on a winter's evening, 
in the A B C's and the catechism. Otherwise a school- 
master who "boarded round" and set up his school from 
place to place as he went about, furnished whatever book 
learning the community got. 

School education was thus only supplementary to the 
more important home education. Outside of the coast 
settlements the schoolmasters were better known for their 
brawn than for their brains. Very seldom were qualifica- 
tions required beyond "Readin', writin', and cypherin' " to 
the Rule of Three. Schoolhouses were few and crude. De- 
serted log cabins, gin mills, and private houses were often 



OUR CHANGING NATIONAL LIFE AND THE SCHOOLS 19 

used in lieu of better places. The schoolmaster was oc- 
casionally addicted to brandy and sometimes, especially 
southward along the Atlantic Seaboard, he was an ''in- 
dentured servant." 

Course of Study and Plan of Daily Work. — The course 
of study, even in the best pioneer schools, was surprisingly 
limited, but fortunately for the children the experience 
gained out of doors and in the simple duties of the home 
and farm place supplemented a meager textbook and the 
teacher's shortcomings. Often the only book used was 
'' Dillworth's Guide to the English Tongue," or '' Fenning's 
Universal Spelling Book." Later when Noah Webster's 
blueback spelling book came into use, marked progress 
was made. Textbooks in arithmetic were seldom used. 
Instead the master had his own " sum book " from which 
the children copied their sums. Very few of them suc- 
ceeded in ciphering beyond the four fundamentals. 

The daily plan of work in an approved school of pioneer 
times would be about as follows : The younger children 
would be " busy keeping still," or droning out their A B 
C's after the master, or studying them from an occasional 
horn book or revolving alphabet. Next, there would be 
reading from the Testament by the various classes. The 
rest of the morning period before recess would be devoted 
to preparing quills and copying, with a few minutes for 
writing. After recess the time was devoted chiefly to 
oral spelling, which was the favorite mental gymnastics 
of the early schools. The afternoon was generally given 
over to more reading and spelling, with some work in sums 
and weights and measures. The art of singing was not 
entirely neglected, although the singing master did not 
come into his own before the later district school was fully 
organized. 



20 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The Household Economy Farmer and Perfection of the 
Family Group. — The pioneers held the land but did not 
till the soil as permanent possessors. As they passed away, 
permanent home-making farmers took their place, who 
developed the land and built on it homes to be the lasting 
heritage of themselves and their children. This type, 
which, for convenience, has been called household economy 
farmers, or land farmers, prevailed in the Middle West 
from 1835 to about 1890. On the Atlantic Coast they got 
possession of the land considerably earlier. These are the 
farmers who perfected the old-time district school, besung 
in poetry, familiar through other literature of early writers, 
and idealized and hearkened back to by our grandfathers 
as belonging to the good old days before modern hurry and 
exploitation had come to destroy our simple rustic content- 
ment. 

The farm home continued to be the center of the house- 
hold arts. The farm produced its own raw materials, and 
the home spun and wove and otherwise manufactured all 
that was needed for comfortable existence. The children 
learned the handcrafts at their own hearths more fully than 
in the pioneer days. Similarly, some instruction was given 
in catechism and in " lessons both moral and divine." 
School education, meanwhile, was becoming the more 
definite work of the permanent district school which grew 
up side by side with the early rural church. 

Work of the Early District School. — Even in that late 
period the school was not expected to provide the children 
a complete preparation for their life work. This con- 
tinued as before mostly through the home and the group 
environment. The school did all that was expected of it 
by giving the children the key to the limited learning of 
the period, by teaching the secrets of the three R's. " The 



OUR CHANGING NATIONAL LIFE AND THE SCHOOLS 21 

farmer of the day," says a good authority/ " rehed for his 
son and daughter not upon trained skill, but upon native 
abilities, sterling character, independence, and industry. 
Of all these the household not the school is the source. So 
that the one-room country school was satisfactory to those 
who created it." 

The typical schoolhouse was a small, roughly clap- 
boarded structure erected in a fence corner close to the 
main highway. Within, the children were crowded on 
benches facing steep-sloping shelves or desks which were 
fastened to the walls on three sides of the room. The 
master's high desk and the wood stove occupied the other 
side. In this room often more than 100 pupils were crowded 
together ; and here the three R's reached their fullest 
degree of development in our early rural life. 

By 1840, the course of study had become somewhat en- 
larged, including not only reading, writing, spelling, and 
arithmetic, but also grammar and geography, with a smat- 
tering of history. The number of daily classes was large, 
being limited, as a rule, only by the number and variety 
of textbooks brought from home for school use. The 
methods were mechanical and dreary. Real interest in 
class work was unusual since the teachers were often ignorant 
and without professional preparation. The organization 
of the program was similar to the one given above for the 
pioneer schools ; spelling, reading, and arithmetic continued 
to absorb most of the pupils' time. Technical grammar 
received some attention in most of the schools. And a few 
of the stronger school-teachers introduced geography and 
history, devoting a few periods weekly to their study. 

It should be clear to the reader from what has been said, 
that the early district school was not the remarkable in- 

^ Wilson, Warren H., Evolution of the Country Community, p. 24. 



22 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

stitution of learning that it is often held to have been. 
Even the smallest one- teacher school of our day has a greater 
variety of subjects to teach, and other tasks to do. This 
— as we shall see later — is because the farm home can 
no longer, as formerly, do its share in educating the chil- 
dren. This much, however, can be said to the credit of 
the early school: it did answer well enough the simple 
educational needs of its day — which is more than can be 
said of many present-time one-teacher schools. 

A Period of Agricultural Transformation. — About the 
time that the household economy farmers had possessed 
themselves of the land, a period of agricultural transforma- 
tion set in, which was to revolutionize the system of agri- 
culture not alone in the United States, but throughout the 
world. This transformation was destined first to be of 
great assistance to the household economy farmer, but 
was later to alter the prevailing system of agriculture so 
completely as to force his " self-sufficing " system of farm- 
ing into the discard, and give to the world, instead, modern 
commercial agriculture. 

In the early 30's nearly all farm work was done by hand. 
There had been practically no improvements in agricultural 
implements for forty centuries. There are yet people living 
who can remember the time when all the small grain was 
sown broadcast and harvested with a hand scythe or a 
larger cradle. But by the close of the Civil War these, and 
all other important agricultural operations, were done by 
horse-driven machinery. The 40's saw the invention of 
the mowing machine, the reaper, and the steel plow, and in 
1850 the horse-power threshing machine came into use. 

These labor-saving machines made large-scale farming 
possible where formerly an area of a few acres had to suffice. 
Almost simultaneously other events fraught with great 



OUR CHANGING NATIONAL LIFE AND THE SCHOOLS 23 

consequence to the future of American agricultural life 
came to pass. Of these events, none was more important 
than the change in the Federal Government's land policy, 
from land sales for the benefit of the treasury solely, to a 
system of offering the public domain to bona fide settlers at 
a nominal price. The first general Preemption Act was 
passed in 1842 and was followed by the important Homestead 
Acts of 1862 and 1864. Under the stimulus of these and 
similar liberal land acts, settlers began the conquest of the 
great grain and stock-growing sections of the country. 

Another event of greatest importance in the same rela- 
tion was the coastward extension of great trunk lines of 
railways, without which the settlers could not have pene- 
trated any distance into the New West, since transportation 
facilities and outlets to market were essential to their ex- 
istence. Even before the Civil War many lines of railway 
had reached the Missouri River. In 1869 the first trans- 
continental line was completed, giving easy access to the 
untold agricultural and mineral wealth of the great West. 
Thus it came about that, within a short generation, labor- 
saving machinery, liberal land acts, and modern trans- 
portation facilities revolutionized the agricultural life of 
the nation. 

Effect of the Westward Expansion on the Old East. — 
It is clear that the agricultural transformation could not 
have occurred without disturbing seriously the agricultural 
system in the old established farming sections. The New 
England farmer, tilling a stony hillside farm, soon found 
hopeless his competition with the prairie farmer who could 
raise big crops from virgin soil, without preliminary invest- 
ment for clearing or fertilizers. Agriculture in New Eng- 
land, and elsewhere along the Atlantic Seaboard, began to 
decline, and with it came the gradual disappearance of the 



24 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

household economy farmer, who was obliged to yield before 
the new commercial farming. The old family group be- 
came broken as many of its most energetic members were 
drawn away by the call of the New West. Often the poor 
farms were abandoned altogether or were left in the hands 
of the less energetic members of the family, who have had a 
daily struggle to eke out a living on them. 

Such hard economic conditions have everywhere resulted 
in great social losses. The religious life of the farm com- 
munity has suffered through the shifting and loss in popu- 
lation. The same is true of school education. The small 
New England school at an early time began to feel the 
effects of the drain on its school population. The disinte- 
gration of population, which had begun with the new agri- 
cultural expansion, soon became still more serious on 
account of the influx of farm folk to the rapidly growing 
industrial cities along the seaboard. 

The condition which came to prevail in New England 
gradually extended to other sections of the Old East, al- 
though usually in a less marked degree. Even sections along 
the western and southern slopes of the Appalachians have 
suffered from the sudden opening of these vast land areas. 

Effect of the World-wide Industrial Revolution. — The 
agricultural expansion was not the sole factor in putting 
an end to the household economy period. The call of the 
new lands had done much to upset old conditions, though 
it has been left for the recent world-wide industrial revolu- 
tion and the startling growth of cities to complete the work 
of transition. 

The United States was practically provincial prior to 
the Civil War. Meanwhile, the spinning jenny, the power 
loom, and the application of steam power had already 
revolutionized industrial life in England and on the European 



OUR CHANGING NATIONAL LIFE AND THE SCHOOLS 25 

continent. In our country, the period of city-building is 
more recent, dating really only from the 70's. For many 
years our city population has been outgrowing the rural 
population, with the result that the nation, which until 
recently was counted as solely agricultural, is, in 191 6, just 
about one-half agricultural and one-half industrial. It is 
incorrect to say that the total rural population has actually 
decreased in numbers in this time — such would of course 
be impossible in a country like ours — but the fact is that 
while, during the decade 1900-19 10, the urban population in- 
creased at the rate of 34.8 per cent, the rural population had 
increased only 11.2 per cent. Many states, moreover, 
showed an actual decrease in rural workers over the pre- 
ceding decade, as the only increase worth mentioning was 
in the newer Western states. 

The cities have sounded the death knell of all the indus- 
tries which at one time were an important part of the 
household economy group. In early times, indeed, rural 
communities had a double set of workers ; the farmers who 
devoted most of their time to soil-tilling ; and the rural 
artisans who lived at the open country cross-roads as black- 
smiths, wheelwrights, cobblers, weavers, and the like. Of 
these now an occasional blacksmith alone remains, and with 
them have gone many of the old social attractions from rural 
communities. 

Economic pressure was the cause of the earliest city-ward 
movement ; later, the increasing social barrenness of rural 
life has induced many others to follow. And now that the 
movement is well under way, it tends to increase by sheer 
force of its own momentum. There is probably not a 
single institution in rural districts that has not suffered 
from this phenomenon — certainly the school has not been 
the least sufferer. 



26 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The Period of Exploitation and Land Speculation. — It 
is customary to speak of the last quarter century as a period 
of undue exploitation of all our natural resources. With 
this has been connected an excessive speculation in land 
values. There has naturally always been a certain amount 
of lavishness in the use of the nation's land wealth, which 
in the early days was inevitable. The household economy 
farmer was obliged to destroy a vast forest wealth to clear 
his land ;" he even found it more profitable to abandon his 
old fields and to prepare new areas from the virgin forest. 
A certain amount of speculation in lands was indulged in 
as early as the colonial period. But all this was to be ex- 
pected in a new country. The exploitation and land spec- 
ulation meant here have been on a national scale and 
are, in effect, the result of the great westward expansion 
explained above. 

The land exploiter is, according to Dr. Warren H. Wilson, 
" a temporary economic type, created in the period of redis- 
tribution of land. The characteristic of the exploiter is his 
commercial valuation of all things. He is the man who 
sees only the value of money." ^ The exploiter is the 
natural product of the unprecedented opportunities sud- 
denly opened to the nation with the beginning of the west- 
ward expansion. The old household economy farmer had 
been content to possess the land and to hand it down to his 
children and children's children, unincumbered by mortgages 
or other liabilities. The boast of such a farmer used to be 
that the farm had been in the family for generations. Under 
the new exploitation all is different. The same land is sold 
and resold an indefinite number of times in a few years. 
It is seldom considered a permanent home. The land is 
purchased largely on credit and the last holder will usually 

^ Evolution of the Country Community, p. 32. 



OUR CHANGING NATIONAL LIFE AND THE SCHOOLS 27 

exchange it again as soon as he is offered a good margin 
above what it cost him. 

Farm Tenancy and Absentee Landlordism. — In this 
process of repeated exchange the lands have invariably 
deteriorated. The great concern of the last owner has 
generally been to get as much out of the land as possible 
without putting anything back into the soil crust. This 
has been the chief curse of the exploitation period. Out 
of it have come also many other serious problems. Of 
these none is more baffling than our tenant farming and 
absentee landlordism. 

In the times of the household economy farmer nearly 
every family owned its own homestead. But exploitation 
and speculation have driven land prices to unnatural 
figures, with the result that only a small part of the agri- 
cultural population can possess the .land. We are accord- 
ingly becoming largely a nation of tenants. As a rule the 
poorest sections of the country have the smallest number of 
tenants, since the lands there have already been worn out 
by over-exploitation. Here one may become a landowner 
almost at one's own terms. This is now notably true of 
New England and elsewhere down the Atlantic Seaboard. 
In the great grain and cattle-producing areas of the Middle 
West and the best cotton lands of the South the landlord 
has retained title to the land, leaving its actual cultivation 
to tenants. The present system of tenancy with its generally 
short- time contract results in further " skinning " the land. 
Certainly there are many notable exceptions to the above ; 
but, as a whole, the system has been suicidal, as it has been 
destroying, by degrees, our greatest natural resource — 
the soil fertility. 

What else has been lost to the land ? It seems that every 
factor which counted for stability and permanent possession 



28 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

becomes dissolved under exploitation. It has produced a 
new figure in our national economy — the absentee land- 
lord, well enough known under a somewhat different garb in 
mediaeval Europe. As a type he lives in a town, to whose 
organized life he adds little or nothing, being naturally 
conservative and opposed to progressive enterprise. His 
chief object is, as a rule, to get the most possible out of his 
tenanted land before he passes it on to the next purchaser. 
An agricultural system which makes such spoliation pos- 
sible is in dire need of reorganization. 

How the One-Teacher School Fared. — The school has 
suffered great losses during the period of transition. From 
the 30's to the time of the Civil War the school had steadily 
grown in educational value. Strong men teachers could be 
secured from the newly established colleges. The course 
of study was becoming enlarged. The school was the center 
of many community activities, chiefly of a social nature. 
As a whole it answered the needs of its times. Then came 
the great change. School attendance began to fluctuate 
with the shifting tide of agricultural population. As people 
moved to new fields of exploitation or to town, the school 
attendance began to dwindle. Some sections of the country, 
notably in the East and Middle West, had already been 
overschooled ; that is to say, local ambition to have a 
school as near home as possible had been instrumental in 
unduly multiplying small schoolhouses, consequently re- 
ducing the local tax area of each, and resulting in short 
terms and mediocre teaching. The men teachers also 
began to be drawn away by the greater industrial oppor- 
tunities elsewhere ; and immature and, usually, inex- 
perienced women teachers took their places. In this way 
the one- teacher school has gradually become retarded, 
until it is now generally out of harmony with the needs of 



OUR CHANGING NATIONAL LIFE AND I'HE SCHOOLS 29 

the rural community. From what has been said above the 
reader will understand that conditions largely beyond 
human control rather than anything else must be charged 
with the unsatisfactory educational conditions of recent 
years. 

Husbandman Farming. — It is well to repeat that the 
period of exploitation is a time of transition from the old 
household economy farming, while the nation was still in its 
" shut in" stage, to husbandman farming when the world 
must be the market. In the old days agriculture was 
local ; now it is becoming international. The household 
economy farmer produced and manufactured everything 
he needed at home in his own family-group, or bought and 
sold at the local trading-center. The husbandman farmer, 
who is supplanting him, is a specialist who must depend on 
science instead of rule of thumb ; he deals with world needs 
and world conditions. Because of this he needs quite a 
different kind of education from that required by those 
who came before him. The husbandman must depend 
largely on the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 
and on his own reorganized farm community schools. 

The Establishment of a Permanent Agricultural Popu- 
lation, Our Problem. — The period of westward expansion 
and more recent speculation has placed upon the land 
many individuals who are not innately rural. These must 
be sifted out before there can be a permanent American 
agricultural population. The rural problem of the United 
States can be summed up in these few sentences : To estab- 
lish on the land a permanent agricultural population of 
good ideals, by making possible a farm life so remunerative, 
so wholesome and attractive, that all the rural-minded 
people who now live upon the land will be satisfied to live 
their natural lives there — and their children and children's 



30 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

children after them. There can be no permanency so long 
as part of the rural population is city-minded. The sooner 
they are sifted out the better it will be for the land. To 
reorganize our agricultural life and make it permanent is, 
therefore, the task of education. 

The beginning of agricultural reorganization through 
higher institutions of learning reaches back to 1888 when 
the Hatch Act went into effect. A few agricultural experi- 
ment stations had been organized in eastern states before 
this time. But this act marked what Dr. Thomas Nixon 
Carver calls " the beginning of a more comprehensive and 
systematic application of the principles of experimental 
science to agriculture than had ever been attempted be- 
fore." ^ These experiment stations which are now found 
in every state are providing the scientific basis for the new 
husbandman farmers, as the agricultural colleges are teach- 
ing them how to apply the new science. Meanwhile, it is 
the task of the reorganized elementary and secondary rural 
schools to furnish the new leadership — the young men and 
women with the correct vision — who are eager to accept 
agriculture as a science and farm life as a permanent calling. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Give the distinguishing marks of the pioneer type. Do we yet find 
this type in some of the old retarded sections or in the newest sections of 
our country ? Explain. 

Do you know of any school in your section that really belongs to the 
old three R's type ? If so, give its story. 

What are the chief characteristics of the household economy farmers? 

In some sections of the country one can still find types of household 
economy farmers — Pennsylvania "Dutch," Scandinavians, Germans, 
etc. — who insist on holding the land and handing it down to their chil- 
dren. How can you explain this trait ? What kind of farmers are they 
sure to be ? 

^ Principles of Rural Economics, p. io8. 



OUR CHANGING NATIONAL LIFE AND THE SCHOOLS 31 

Compare a good "district" school of 1840 with the one-teacher school 
of to-day. 

Enumerate the social losses that the average rural community has 
sustained since the passing of the household economy farmer. Can you 
offer modem substitutes for the old spelling school, lyceum, singing school, 
etc.? 

State as clearly as you can what is meant by the Period of Agricultural 
Transformation and its effect on the old agricultural life. 

Show just how agriculture in the old East lost in its struggle to com- 
pete with the grain farms of the West. What are abandoned farms ? 

Why did people begin moving to town ? Why are they continuing 
to-day ? 

Describe the exploiter type of agriculturist. Are they doing anything 
towards becoming transformed to husbandman farmers in your com- 
munity. 

Why are you sorry for a retired farmer ? Why are you sorry for the 
land in charge of the average tenant ? 

Can you see in your "mind's eye" how the one-teacher school declined 
during the period of exploitation? Explain. 

What must be the task of the new farm community school in the 
establishment of a permanent agricultural population in the United States ? 

Special Studies 

"The four American Agrarian types" — pioneer, land farmer (house- 
hold economy farmer), exploiter, and husbandman. — Wilson's Evolu- 
tion of the Country Community, pp. 1-61. 

"History of American Agriculture." — Carver's Principles of Rural 
Economics, pp. 63-130; or "Historical Sketch of American Agriculture" 
by same author in Bailey's Encyclopedia of American Agriculture, Vol. IV, 
pp. 39 ff- 

"The Holy Earth." — Bailey. A small book of 171 pages. Should 
be studied entire. 

"Some Conditions of Rural Life." — Leake's The Methods and Means 
of Agricultural Education, pip. 17-31. 



CHAPTER II 
The Rural Community Problem at Close Hand 

General Statement. — In the preceding chapter we told, 
in general terms, the story of the changes that have taken 
place in American rural life. By this time the teacher and 
other readers will understand why our rural life conditions 
are just what they are, and can see how the small school 
has become the retarded institution that it is. The next 
step is to make a more intimate study of the various factors 
and elements in the problem of rural life as it confronts us 
to-day. Only by taking an occasional inventory of his 
assets and liabilities can an individual know his actual 
financial standing. Similarly, it was not until rural sociol- 
ogists began '' taking stock " of rural life assets and lia- 
bilities that the nation at large learned to pay any heed to 
its own unsettled rural condition. 

Just what these fundamental difficulties of rural life are 
and how to remedy them must be understood by prospective 
community leaders. 

What Rural Surveys Have Disclosed. — The first great 
investigation into American rural life was made by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's commission on country life in 1908. The 
purpose of the investigation was to arrive at an exact under- 
standing of our rural life and public opinion in regard to 
this life. The field of investigation followed by the com- 
mission was very comprehensive and resulted in many 
interesting disclosures. It appeared, first of all, that no- 

32 



THE RURAL COMMUNITY PROBLEM AT CLOSE HAND 33 

body realized better than the farm folk themselves the 
shortcomings and needs of farm life. Out of the many 
conferences held and letters exchanged the following facts 
soon became clear : (i) Farmers must have and, indeed, 
demand modern educational facilities, (2) effective co- 
operation in economic and social relations, (3) better means 
of communication, and (4) better health conditions. The 
report of the commission on country life was epoch-making, 
because it was the first concerted effort to show in a con- 
crete way the multitude of rural life shortcomings that 
thinking people had long felt to be true. It laid no claims 
to being final or even being very scientific in its investiga- 
tion. But it did open the way and set people to thinking 
and doing. 

Since 1908 many other studies of rural life have been 
made, although none of them has been national in scope. 
A few investigations have been statewide. The most 
searching have been local in nature, covering usually typical 
counties or even smaller territorial divisions. Some sur- 
veys, again, have ambitiously covered every phase of the 
subject ; while others have centered on a single phase of 
the problem, as education, religious life, recreational activi- 
ties, and community health. 

There is probably danger that this important means of 
taking stock of country life may be overdone, and so fall 
into ill repute. Almost every Tom, Dick or Harry who is 
eager to establish a reputation is ready to ''survey "his 
home community nowadays. Teachers must realize that 
in unskilled hands the survey is a dangerous tool. No 
teacher should attempt this important work without pre- 
vious expert instruction, or, at least, careful study. ^ 

1 Hints are given in the readings at the close of this chapter, which will be of 
assistance to those interested in rural life surveys. 



34 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Through such surveys as explained above, it has been 
possible to arrive at a definite understanding of what our 
rural problem really Is, and what Its underlying factors are. 

The Negative Side of the Problem. — Too often Individ- 
uals of little or no fundamental understanding of rural needs 
undertake the role of reforming country communities. 
Generally, they do more harm than good by what country- 
folk would call their " unwarranted Interference." The 
reorganization, of course, must eventually come from within 
— from the agricultural population Itself, guided by the 
educational leadership through the new schools and other 
rural institutions. Meanwhile, rural leaders should under- 
stand what the rural problem Is and what it Is not. For 
the sake of emphasis. It is well to discuss the negative side 
of the question first. 

The one outstanding fact in American life is that the in- 
dustrial centers are outgrowing the open country and rural 
villages. It has accordingly been reasoned by the unthink- 
ing that the first essential element in reorganization must be 
to get more people onto the land. It Is true that the nation 
is Increasing at the rate of 2,500,000 people annually, while 
production from the soil Is practically at a standstill. The 
inference seems clear enough ; and yet, the problem Is not 
essentially to draw a larger population to rural districts. 

It Is also true that the country has suffered through the 
shift in population by moving to the Industrial places or to 
newer agricultural regions. But the remedy Is not to be 
sought In the so-called '' back-to-the-land " movement. It is 
time to realize that this agitation Is a city Impulse, which if 
realized might help In a measure to solve the difficult prob- 
lems of the city, without aiding the open country ; or In 
many instances, making the difficulties of the latter still 
more complicated by dumping upon our reserve lands an 



THE RURAL COMMUNITY PROBLEM AT CLOSE HAND 



35 



overflow population of impractical city people. During the 
period of westward expansion many people of the " city- 
minded " type came into possession of land. The transi- 
tion through which rural communities are now passing is 
really a sifting process to get rid of these people. Of course, 
so far as there are " rural-minded " people in the towns and 
cities, country people welcome them to the land ; otherwise 
they should remain where they are. 

What is needed on the farm to-day is not so much greatly 
increased numbers of producers — although these also are 
highly desirable if of the right kind — as greatly increased 
acreage production on the land under cultivation. 

The Real Heart of the Matter. — The real problem is to 
establish on the land a permanent agricultural population 
made up of the rural-minded people now there, and their 
natural increase from generation to generation. The prob- 
lem resolves itself into a matter of outlook on life. Lasting 
improvement cannot come until farmers shall in some way 
attain a new and broader outlook on the true significance of 
farm life. This must carry with it the feeling that agri- 
culture in the United States is the most important and 
honorable profession that a man can follow. With this 
feeling will come a newborn dignity and confidence that will 
eventually make our agriculturists leaders both in state and 
in national affairs. 

It is evident, however, that educators and other rural 
leaders have at least the following matters to settle in a 
satisfactory way before there can be a stable agricultural 
population: (i) Farming must become more remunerative 
than it is ; and (2) farm life must be made more wholesome 
and more socially attractive than it is. 

While much is said and written on the independence of 
the American farmer, it remains that, aside from the un- 



36 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

earned increment on the land, his income is surprisingly 
small and wholly out of proportion with the capital and 
labor invested. According to a report of the United States 
Department of A^griculture, the average daily income of 
American farmers for the past year — aside from a mere 
living — was forty-nine cents ! The first task of educated 
leadership is to organize rural folk to make a better living 
through better farming. 

Even when this shall have come to pass, it will be difficult 
to hold people on the land unless general living conditions 
in the country become greatly improved. Farm people 
have the same social • instincts and the same cravings for 
recreation as have people that live in town. It is probably 
incorrect to say that people are leaving the country because 
of too much work. It is rather because this work is too 
often one monotonous round of labor from morning till 
night, with little opportunity for change and recreation 
after the long hours of self-repression. The closing years of 
the household economy period saw the passing of most of 
the early-day group interests of a recreational kind, and, 
unfortunately, there have been few modern substitutes. 
Under these conditions country men and women of the 
'* convivial type and strongly developed social instincts " 
will continue to abandon rural districts for the towns and 
cities, until country folk organize a new, wholesome recrea- 
tional life of their own. 

Underlying Principles in the Problem. — It is now time 
to make a brief statement of the underlying principles that 
explain present rural life deficiencies. No attempt is made 
to treat the subject exhaustively. This the teacher may 
do through the use of the appended suggestive readings. 
It is important to keep in mind that the problem must be 
treated as a united whole. To attempt improvement of one 



THE RURAL COMMUNITY PROBLEM AT CLOSE HAND 37 

phase of rural life while ignoring other phases is certain to 
end in failure. The teacher, for example, cannot success- 
fully work out the problem of school improvement if he is 
deaf and blind to the other social and economic questions 
of the community ; no more can the rural pastor solve the 
problem of religious life in the country if he holds aloof 
from educational and other community affairs. Rural 
leaders must understand the full significance of the im- 
portant factors enumerated and briefly analyzed in the 
following paragraphs. Without this knowledge their work 
in behalf of community betterment will be seriously cur- 
tailed. 

Isolation of Rural Life the Fundamental Difficulty. — 
The problem of the modern city is to overcome the evils 
caused by congestion of great masses of humanity in re- 
stricted city-quarters ; the problem of the open country is 
to counteract the influence of the comparative isolation 
under which most farm people are obliged to live and strug- 
gle. The effects of isolation are both psychological and 
sociological. They leave their mark on the person as an 
individual as well as in his relationship with groups of 
individuals. 

Without question this living unto self has made the 
American farmer strongly individualistic, independent, 
and self-reliant. But these traits are more than counter- 
balanced by the serious social stagnation from which he has 
suffered. The power of suggestion that belongs to the 
members of larger social groups saves the individual from 
becoming narrow, selfish, and suspicious of his neighbors. 
Unfortunately, such is not the case with our rural life. 
Farmers do not work together the way town people do. 
They are highly suspicious of one another and fear being 
trapped by the unscrupulous. They are suspicious of 



38 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Other classes — and with some reason, as they have long 
been considered the legitimate prey of the better organized 
classes. They fear the leadership of others and are reluc- 
tant to form organizations, either economic or social, or to 
cooperate for community betterment. 

This isolation has placed its stamp upon the rural village 
almost as much as on the open country. While not isolated 
in just the sense that the farm is, the power of suggestion 
in the few families gathered in the small village is generally 
insufficient to keep alive a spirit of genuine cooperation. 
As a result the rural village frequently partakes of the 
worst elements of life in the open country without getting 
the benefit of its uplifting influences. Because of indif- 
ferent policing and lack of health organization small rural 
villages are considered by many sociologists as the least 
desirable of places to rear a family. In the efforts for im- 
provement it is, therefore, essential to include in the pro- 
gram this kind of rural community. 

Isolation and Rural Organization. — A casual study 
discloses that successful organization is usually limited to 
the well-peopled communities or to communities where 
farmers of foreign origin have brought old country systems 
of organization with them. Again, organization of an 
economic nature has occasionally come about, in spite of all 
hindering influences, where the necessity was great enough. 
The Farmers' Union, for example, was organized by Southern 
cotton growers to protect their markets and keep up the 
prices. The Western fruit growers and irrigation farmers, 
the dairymen of the Middle West, and many others have 
their own organizations for protection against outside 
predatory interests. 

Farm organizations of many kinds are imperative. First, 
there should be cooperative organization of an economic 



THE RURAL COMMUNITY PROBLEM AT CLOSE HAND 39 

nature, teaching agriculturists to produce much from the 
land ; to manufacture the raw materials into the finished 
product ; and, finally, to place these products on the world 
markets to better advantage. In this way only can farm- 
ers expect to regain control of industries that long ago 
slipped out of their hands, and so retain for themselves a 
surplus of wealth beyond the mere necessities of life. It is 
well to realize at this juncture that there can be no real 
rural civilization before farm homes afford a certain degree 
of comfort and even some of the luxuries of life. To this 
end grain, fruit, and seed growers' associations, stock- 
breeding and cow-testing societies, mutual insurance so- 
cieties, buying and selling organizations, credit associations, 
road-improvement clubs, etc., should be organized in rural 
communities as soon as conditions become right. 

The social interests of the community should be organized 
in a similar way. They should cover all the educational, 
recreational, ethical, and aesthetical activities. They should 
include public social clubs, festival days, literary clubs, 
reading clubs, public health societies, athletic organizations, 
parent-teacher associations, boys' and girls' clubs, boy 
scouts and campfire girls, rural improvement associations, 
etc. 

The ultimate hope is for school education to devise the 
ways and means to draw farm folk together by new com- 
munity ties in spite of the drawbacks of natural environment. 
This has been accomplished, by way of illustration, in 
Denmark, where a remarkably complete system of schools 
has led the way to a reorganization that has made the 
Danes the most scientific farmers in the world. 

Meanwhile, all the forces now available, including teachers, 
preachers, Y. M. C. A. secretaries, county agricultural 
agents, heads of granges, farmers' unions, and others should 



40 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



plan an organization for the home community. The work 
should be deliberate and thoroughly done. Towns and 
cities have their commercial clubs, booster clubs, and im- 
provement associations — all giving expression to organized 
activity. The country should have similar organizations. 

Plan for Organizing the Rural Community. — Excellent 
plans for such a community organization have recently 
been made by Dr. Thomas Nixon Carver.^ The plan 
provides for a central committee and ten subcommittees, 
all with definite tasks to perform. The organization, in- 
deed, is much like the city commercial club or chamber of 
commerce. Dr. Carver organizes his community around 
business and social needs in the following way : 

Better farm production. 

Better marketing facilities. 

Better means of securing farm supplies. 

Better credit facilities. 

Better means of communication : 

A. Roads. 

B. Telephones. 
Better educational facilities. 
Better sanitation. 

Better opportunities for recreation. 
Beautification of the countryside. 
Better home economics. 

Under the head of business and social needs appear five 
subdivisions. Some communities may wish to modify this 
arrangement to their own needs, although the enumeration 
is broad enough to suit almost any kind of rural community. 
The arrangement provides definite work for ten committees. 
The scope of the organization is best realized by studying 

' The Organization of a Rural Community, T. N. Carver, Ad\'iser in Agricultural 
Economics, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Available to general readers as 
1914 Year Book, Separate No. 632. 







[I. 






2. 




I. Business 


3- 


eeds of rural 


needs. 


4- 

5- 


communi- 




ties which 






require or- 




I, 


ganization. 




'J 




n. Social 


I 




needs. 






.5. 



THE RURAL COMMUNITY PROBLEM AT CLOSE HAND 41 

the accompanying diagram, which is reproduced by the 
author's permission. The scheme needs no further com- 
ments here, as the diagram is self-explanatory. If care- 



To study wayo of In- 
orsaelng prodaotloa 
end to proBot* eaoh 
•nt«rprii«a aa,- 

pig, cattli, mni other 
olabs; gtrlB* oajming' 
and gardon olnba; 
gov testing asioela- 

To Bake soil surveys, 
find adaptable eropa. 
and eaooorags field 
aeleotlon of seed. 
To stndy ooapost heopa 



To atndy i 
rotation and farm oi 
ganlsatlon aultable 
to the ooBDunlty. 



Tooatlonal, moral, 

religious. 

To proBote schools, 

Btady clubs, lectures 
ptloon and bot- 
otwe ontflta. 



llbrarlee. bulletins 
ef Bepartoent of Agri- 
oulture, colleges and 
experiment stations. 
To prosote boys* and 
girls' natural history 
eluba, girls' sewing 



MARZETIHG. 
To atudy wi 



branding, 
operatlTe 



lea, ahipplDg asso- 
olationa. etc. 

through pareelB post 
and exprcsB oonpanits. 
To atudy aontalaers. 



To atudy 
methods; Joint or- 
ders, earload lota 



To study posBlbllltl^a 

to BQke things needed 
on farms : rope, leath- 



slaos^ter 1 
curing baoon. drying 
b«ef. oooperatlTC 
tanehine shops for re- 
pairing farm si&ehinttrj. 



PIfiABC£ AND ACCOOBTIHO. 



proTidins oapital; 
, fara lewL*. long and 
abort tlB«; aoortiu- 

ing ant loan asBoei- 
atlonSi cooporatlTs 



a tec of deter- 

fara tools. 

To study ho* to orgai 



oldent, life, anloal. 



Central Committee 
Made ut> of of f icers of 
Organization £ Chair- 
men of Sub-Commiliees 



;er supply, 
milk, flics, Bosqultoi 
household peats. 



eports adapted 

ral ooBnunitiea, auoh 

back riding, "hiking," 



To proaote rural feo- 
tlTltleB. coDblnlng 
threBhing, huaking. 
aotton plowing, and 
other seasonal work 



proper uae 
of paint on fara build- 
inga, artiatlo oon- 
atraotlen of bridges. 



of chuTQb and school 
grounds, esBctcrles, 

To doTelop taste for 
the Deans at hand for 
asathstie enjoyment, 

of field I 
Sty! 



.KOTICATIOH AKD TRAflS- 



sethoda of road making 
and oonatroatlon, e»- 
peelally in schools. 
Each Bohool to care 
for pi 
Kim: 



botvton BohoolB 



Rl^lry 1 

To organise fan nolgta- 
borhooda for road in»- 

prOTenent an4 not to 
ask for goTomacnt fundi 
To encourage haTlng a 
telephone in eyery 
aohoolhouse and mutual 
telephone lines in 
•Tcry neighborhood. 





HOaSEBOLD BC0n(miC9. 



. better 1 

Ing and ploabing sya- 
tens, nse of gas and 
tleeirlolty. ooopera- 
tlTc laundries, bak- 
•rlcc, loe houses, and 
eold storage planta. 
To study foods, balane- 






lo promote the stand- 



Outline Plan for tKe Organization of a Rural Community 



Fig. I. 



fully followed, it will give the countryside both the business 
organization and social interests needed. 

The Place of the Teacher in This Reorganization. — The 
teacher is one of the two or three natural community leaders 
and should take the initiative in community organization. 
If he is the right kind of teacher, he will have had all neces- 



42 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

sary preparation for the work, and no one has greater faciH- 
ties for this purpose than he. He is in charge of the school 
plant, from which radiates many community interests, and 
is its natural gathering place. He is in 'touch with the 
leading men and women of the community, with the county 
agent and agricultural representatives of the state and even 
Federal Government. All this presupposes maturity and 
thorough preparation on the part of the teacher. If he 
does not possess these primary requisites for successful 
leadership, he should not be in the community at all. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Why should every rural life leader be conversant with the Report of 
the Country Life Commission? Is the book on your "rural hfe shelf"? 

What is meant by the rural life movement? How should it be dis- 
tinguished from the " back-to-the-land " movement? 

Show from a study of the 19 lo Census how urban communities are 
outgrowing rural communities. What is the relation of this to the ''high 
cost of living"? 

Explain clearly wherein the rural problem is not essentially a question 
of larger population but of the right kind of population. 

What two things are necessary before we can expect a permanent rural 
population ? Wherein is it largely a bread-and-butter problem ? 

Do you think it is hard work, or the monotony coupled with work, 
that drives people from the farm ? 

Prove that "isolation " is the real underlying factor in rural life. What 
does the power of suggestion do for the race ? 

How can school education hope to organize rural interests "in spite of 
the drawbacks of natural environment"? 

Have you studied carefully the needs of rural communities as suggested 
in Dr. Carver's outline? How many of these needs can you as a teacher 
help to improve? 

Is your community ready for organization on the Carver plan ? When 
will you enlist in helping to launch it ? 

Show what teachers can do to create sentiment for improved means of 
communication. Have your boys organize a "road drag club " to improve 
the roads between their homes and school. Why not? 



THE RURAL COMMUNITY PROBLEM AT CLOSE HAND 43 

Special Studies 

Prepare for successful survey work by studying the following literature 
on the subject : ^ (i) Bailey's The Survey-Idea in Country-Life Work; (2) 
Galpin's A Method of Making a Social Survey of a Rural Community ; (3) 
Taft's Community Study for Country Districts; and (4) the report of rural 
surveys made by the Department of Church and Country Life of the 
Presbyterian Board of Home Missions. 

"The Social Nature of the Problem."' — Gillette's Constructive Rural 
Sociology, Chapter V. 

"Triumphs of Scientific Agriculture." — Fiske's Challenge of the Coun- 
try, Chapter IV. 

"The Importance of Cooperation in the Danish Agricultural System." 
— Foght's Rural Denmark and Its Schools, Chapter III. 

"The Rural Problem" and "The Solution of the Problem. "— Butter- 
field's The Country Church and the Rural Problem. 

"The Organization of a Rural Community." — Carver in 1914 Year 
Book, Department of Agriculture. 

* See Bibliography for complete address. 



CHAPTER III 
Fundamental Agencies in Rural Life : The Home 

Introductory Statement. — The three great fundamental 
institutions in rural life are the home, the church, and the 
school. The redirection of the rural community must come 
about through a proper relationship and successful coopera- 
tion of these three institutions and their supplementary 
allies. The latter, including the Young Men's and Young 
Women's Christian Associations, the Grange, the Farmers' 
Union, the Rural Press, the Farmers' Institute, and many 
other organizations must be clearly distinguished from the 
great fundamental agencies. They " may be supplemen- 
tary," says a good authority in this field, " but they may 
never supplant, they may be cooperative, but they may 
never be competitive." ^ 

The farm home is the heart of the community. The 
greatness of the latter is measured by the sum of its efficient 
homes. The church and the school, as institutions, came 
into existence to minister to the needs of the family group at 
a time when its organization had become too complex for 
the immediate members of the group to look after all the 
spiritual and educational phases of family life. In their 
relations the three institutions react on one another. The 
attitude of the home determines largely the activities of the 
church and the school. The church should inspire the 
family group to moral life and noble thought ; the school 

^ Roberts, Albert E.. Rural Church Message, p. 62. 
44 



FUNDAMENTAL AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE : THE HOME 45 

should supplement the teachings of the home and help it 
to develop noble manhood and womanhood, and especially 
to furnish such preparation for life as home environment 
cannot conveniently provide. 

This chapter is devoted to a more intimate study of the 
central one of these institutions — the rural home. 

The Old-time Home Group. — It has already been shown 
in a former chapter how the old-time family group was 
practically self-sustaining. It produced its raw materials 
from the soil and forest, and manufactured them into food 
and clothing and shelter. There was plenty of hard work, 
but somehow the tasks had a unifying influence. The 
sturdy boys labored side by side with their father to clear 
the forest and prepare the land for the plow, or they bound 
the grain as he wielded the scythe ; the girls spun the flax 
and wool and helped their mother make the winter's store 
of candles. 

There is a certain charm to the modern reader in such a 
description of our forefathers at work, though no one should 
harbor the idea that farm work in early days was anything 
but hard and exacting. For conveniences of a modern kind 
were unknown and everything had to be made and done by 
hand. But the multitude of tasks had a wonderfully unify- 
ing influence on the family group. It was a moral and 
spiritual unity, springing out of the close relationship of 
parents to children. The home tasks in which all the chil- 
dren had a share taught them to be helpful to one another, 
persevering and kindly, and above everything else loyal to 
the family circle. Nor was it all work on the old-time farms ; 
for there was less to do in winter time than now. During the 
long evenings when chores were done, the family group 
gathered at the fireside and the story- telling began, and the 
few books it possessed were brought out and reread. There 



46 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

could be nothing frivolous about a group of people which 
depended upon the Bible, "Pilgrim's Progress," and ** Robin- 
son Crusoe" for its sources of inspiration. Says Dr. King, 
'' The children had not only their taste for enduring literature 
developed, but they acquired also in this way a fund of 
sound moral principles, which were bound to find expres- 
sion in their work-a-day lives." ^ 

The early home, more frequently than now, had its family 
altar, and church attendance was regular and enforced. 
Moreover wholesome rustic recreation was not lacking. 
Young and old would gather for their " play-games," their 
huskings, and their quiltings, and in some communities 
for the dance. The school meant much to the family circle 
as a social center, with its singing-school, its lyceum, and 
its spelling bee. Such, in brief, was the home of the house- 
hold economy farmer. 

The Farm Home as It Emerged from the Transition. — 
The average home as we have seen it emerge from the transi- 
tion in American rural life was a place where work pre- 
dominated. The mortgage had to be cleared, and there 
was a neighboring quarter-section of land to be bought. 
Hard, back-breaking labor much of it was, without any of 
the recompense which came to the earlier group through 
intimate and thoughtful cooperation. For under the new 
dispensation the home, altogether too often, has been a 
place only in which to eat and work and sleep after an ex- 
hausting day's labor in the fields. 

The transition farmer did not find much to console him in 
the rural church. It had lost much of its old-time vital 
force. The revival no longer appealed as it did of yore. 
The preacher, too, had moved to town and so could not 
minister to the farmers as in former years. Then the 

1 In Education for Social Efficiency, pp. 80-81. 



FUNDAMENTAL AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE : THE HOME 47 

school had become retarded, and found itself unable to be 
the socializing agency it used to be. The sturdy sons 
ceased to bring their brides to the paternal home. As 
nestlings almost, they shifted for themselves, eager for their 
share of Western land or for the romance of the city. The 
struggle meanwhile continued at home on the land. Hired 
men took the place of the departed, and the unsocial ex- 
istence continued until, perhaps, the women folk — mother 
and daughter — declared against the unequal struggle 
from starlight to starlight, and in their despair forced the 
abandonment of the farm. 

The Great Awakening. — But now the great awakening 
is here. The era of husbandman farming is being ushered 
in. , Subtle forces are felt at work to strengthen the farm 
home in its central place in the community. The mother 
of the family and her daughters are being recognized in the 
new system of economy as wage earners on equal terms 
with the men who work in the fields. 

Through education the new point of view is beginning 
to take hold of the people. Labor-saving devices for the 
home, and new social attractions of a wholesome nature 
are making it possible for these members of the family 
group to find leisure to commune with members of their 
own sex — yes, the neiw dispensation is making it possible 
for an average farm woman to sit down occasionally in the 
midst of her flowers, without needing to worry about the 
cabbages and onions and pigs. This is, indeed, a first great 
result of rural uplift ! 

The Farm Home and the Farm to Keep Their Agricul- 
tural Earnings. — So long as farming continued to be looked 
upon as a sordid, money-getting business without any 
relation to the mystery of the earth and its holiness, suc- 
cessful farmers would invest their incomes in urban enter- 



48 THE RVRAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

prises instead of using them in rural districts to upbuild 
great homes, strong churches, fine schools, and farmers' 
cooperative enterprises of every kind. 

In many sections of the country this period of reorganiza- 
tion has already been reached. Instead of moving to the 
nearest large town the farmers begin to erect modern homes 
on the land, equipped with all the latest appliances in heat- 
ing, lighting, and water supply. The kitchen is made an 
up-to-date laboratory in household economics, delightful 
to work in, reducing labor to a minimum. In many homes 
churns and washing-machines are being operated by power 
from the barns. Many a farmer has equipped an office 
for himself with rolltop desk and filing case ; from this, as 
headquarters, he superintends the work on the farm and 
extends an encouraging hand to every promising enterprise. 

In rural Denmark where agricultural life has been suc- 
cessfully reorganized through a remarkable system of ed- 
ucation, the farm place and farm home are both managed 
on a scientific basis. The farm woman's work, for example, 
has been lightened so that it is a delight to preside over a 
modern Danish farm home. All the farm products, as 
milk, hogs, and cattle, are manufactured in the cooperative 
farmers' creameries and packing-houses near by. There 
is little churning or butchering at home. Huge windmills 
are utilized to generate electricity to light the farm place 
and turn its machinery. The washing is now seldom done 
at home, but is sent to the farmers' own laundry to be 
returned clean and fresh at the close of the week. 

Here, too, the American farm home may see its oppor- 
tunity. The big family washing and ironing has driven 
many a good farm woman to despair. One community, at 
least, to the author's knowledge, seeing the folly of the old 
system, has established an up-to-date cooperative laundry 



FUNDAMENTAL AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE : THE HOME 49 

for the entire countryside. This is at Chatfield in south- 
eastern Minnesota. Here the community school has a 
strong hold on the people. Largely through its influence 
the farmers organized a stock company on the " man vote " 
principle and constructed their laundry in connection with 
the already established creamery. Now the Chatfield farmers 
can get their fresh laundry, the flat pieces nicely mangled, 
on the wagon that returns the skim milk for the calves ! 

The New Farm Home to Retain Its Strong Sons. — 
Now that agriculture is becoming a world business on a 
scientific plane the strong men with conquest in their souls 
will be glad to remain on the land. They are needed there. 
As soon as agricultural earnings become expended more fully 
in the rural community and the rural leisure class learns to 
remain on the land instead of moving to town, there will be 
both means to do with and brains to plan with in the country. 
Then the capable young man of rural mind will get his 
opportunity. 

The boast of many a rural community of the past has 
been the large number of lawyers, physicians, and statesmen 
that have gone forth from it into the world. Little have 
the boasters understood that this system of economy, en- 
couraged by a wrong kind of education, has been draining 
the very lifeblood out of the farm community. Some 
rural people will always go to the cities where they are 
needed ; but these will find their way easily enough without 
being deliberately *' pointed away " from the land. 

The whole question of rural life will be solved as soon as 
the strong sons and daughters of the family group are 
satisfied to remain on the land. For they must found the 
homes from which shall come our permanent agricultural 
population, thereby perpetuating a satisfactory rural civili- 
zation. 



50 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The Teacher and Rural Idealism. — There can be no 
ideal rural civilization till we succeed in developing higher 
ideals in the rural group life. No person can rise above 
his ideals. " Give to any people a vision of something 
better than they have known," says Dr. Henry Wallace, 
'' and it is at once a better occupation. ' For where your 
treasure is, there will your heart be also.' There must be 
heroes in the country as well as in the city ; for where a 
boy's heroes are, there will be his interests also. In order 
to idealize rural life, it should be pictured with all the at- 
tractiveness that it should possess." ^ 

Here the new education spans the gap which has been 
separating the home and school. The new teaching digni- 
fies agriculture as the primary calling of the American people, 
and the home of the modern agriculturist as the normal 
American abiding place. The teacher who is charged with 
this work of surpassing worth must know how to idealize 
rural life. He should know its heroes and sing their praise. 
For our rural life has its real heroes — men who have con- 
quered nature ; who have made things grow where nothing 
grew before ; who have improved grain and fruit and beasts ; 
who have organized the very children to become lovers of 
nature and producers of its first-fruits ; who have proved 
by their deeds the best lesson of all — that the land is holy ! 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Explain just how the home is the fundamental rural institution. 

Show the intimate relation of home, church, and school. 

Describe the home group of the household economy farmer. Contrast 
it with the farm home of the transition period. 

Defend this statement: "The farmer's work is from sun to sun, but 
that of his wife is never done." 

^ Rural Church Message, p. 45. 



FUNDAMENTAL AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE: THE HOME 51 

Has the "great awakening" come to your community yet? What 
are you doing to hasten the day? 

Explain, in detail, the importance of keeping the agricultural earnings 
as well as the rural leisure class in rural communities. 

Enumerate a variety of household conveniences that are quite possible 
in the average rural community. 

Show, in your own way, how a new outlook on rural life — a new rural 
"idealism" — will help to keep the strong young men on the land. 

Have you ever known the teacher who set the children against rural 
life by his own wrong attitude towards this life ? 

Why are the following leaders ranked as rural heroes : Luther Burbank, 
Seaman A. Knapp, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Justin S. Morrill, O. H. Kelley, 
and Stephen M, Babcock? (See Bureau of Education Bulletin 1913, No. 
43.) 

Special Studies 

"Woman's Contribution to the Country-Life Movement." — Bailey's 
Country Life Movement, pp. 85-96. 

"Social Life of Rural Denmark." — Foght's Rural Denmark and Its 
Schools, Chapter IV. 

"The Farm Home" — Carney's Country Life and the Country School, 
Chapter 11. 

"The Farm Partner" — Crow's The American Country Girl, Chapter 
XIX. 

"The Character-Forming Possibilities of Home Life." — King's 
Education for Social Efficiency, Chapter V. 



CHAPTER IV 
The Church and Allied Agencies in Rural Life 

The Place of the Church in Rural Life. — As the farmer 
works his land he leans for support with one shoulder on the 
schoolhouse and the other on the church. No good old 
saying is truer than this. From the beginning of organized 
society it has been so ; for no rural community can prosper 
which neglects either institution. As for the church, a 
community is indeed in a bad way that minimizes the im- 
portance of this institution, albeit often poorly organized, 
badly financed, and narrow in the conception of its work. 
In religious betterment the church has always been the one 
supreme institution ; while in social betterment none has 
been its superior. 

'' The community needs nothing so much as a church," 
says Dr. Wilber Anderson, *' to interpret life; to diffuse 
a common standard of morals ; to plead for the common 
interest ; to inculcate unselfishness, neighborliness, coop- 
eration ; to uphold ideals and to stand for the supremacy of 
the spirit." ^ 

The rural church is in much the same category to-day as 
the rural school. It, too, has suffered much from changing 
national life. In many communities it is decadent, in others 
it is being able to readjust itself to the new conditions of 
life and is regaining its leadership in religious and social 
service. 

^ In The Country Town, p. 299. 
52 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 53 

Transition of the Rural Church. — The rural church has 
passed through all the four periods of evolution explained 
in earlier chapters. In pioneer times, westward of the 
AUeghanies, meetinghouses were few, the settlements being 
satisfied with the occasional circuit-rider who came to 
exhort the people, to baptize, to marry, and to bury their 
dead. The pioneer period was marked by its emotional 
revival and camp-meeting, which was a natural thing for 
men living in the midst of danger on the edge of forest and 
prairie. 

The second period coincides with that of the household 
economy farmer in agricultural life and the district school 
in education. The church had by that time become well- 
established at the cross-roads. As the community pros- 
pered, it prospered and grew in numbers. Denominational 
rivalry began, and the cross-roads soon were able to boast 
two, three, and often more churches. This denominational 
rivalry was stimulating in its early stages, but led to over- 
churching, and later to a losing struggle against the burden 
of debt when the rural transition began to be felt. 

The third period in church transition coincides with the 
period of exploitation in our agricultural life. The churches 
began losing in membership as people moved west or to 
town. Often the old families who had supported the 
church of their denomination for generations moved away 
and no new " pillars of the church " came to take their 
place. Churches that had faced a struggle to keep their 
work going now closed their doors, one after another. Rural 
districts proved over-churched ; and as they weakened, the 
churches were less and less able to offer the service needed by 
the reorganizing agricultural communities. 

What Religious Surveys Show. — Leading church de- 
nominations are keenly awake to the importance of saving 



54 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

the rural church. The salvation lies in making it a social 
service church as truly as the school must be a social serv- 
ice school. As a first step, rural churches are being sur- 
veyed — a study is being made of their assets and liabilities. 
The Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church 
in the United States has been the pioneer in this new field. 
It has made surveys in Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, 
Tennessee, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and is now in a 
position to go about reorganizing the churches in a practical 
businesslike manner. 

The significance of the change from the old to the new is 
depicted well by Dr. Warren H. Wilson in the introduction 
to his report on the Missouri Survey in which he says, speak- 
ing of the work of the church in the past and forecasting its 
future : 

"It has done everything in its power to pave the farm- 
er's road to the Celestial City, but it has paid little atten- 
tion to his road to the nearest village. It has given great 
sums to alleviate poverty, but given little thought to the 
causes that make for poverty — the American system of 
farm tenantry, the robbing of the soil of its fertility, and 
stripping the hillside of its trees. It has pictured the 
beauties of heavenly mansions and taken no account of the 
buildings in which men and women must spend their lives 
here and now. It has been a faithful steward in caring for 
the Elysian fields, but it has allowed the riches of blue 
grass and corn and wheat fields to be squandered with 
prodigal hand. It has made a glorious and untiring fight 
to teach the children God's word in the Bible, but it has left 
God's word in the rivers and hills, the grass and the trees, 
without prophet, witness, or defender. Hereafter it is 
going to know something about the communities it attempts 
to serve — of what stufT they are made, what their needs 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 55 

and their aspirations. It will take an interest in the every- 
day affairs of the farmer — his crops and stock, his buildings 
and machinery, his roads and school, his lodge and recrea- 
tion. The spires of the little cross-road church will still 
point to the skies, but its footstone will lie on the common- 
place work of the day. It will ' preach the worth of the 
native earth,' and it will look upon American land as holy 
land to be guarded as a sacred trust from the Almighty for 
His children of future generations." ^ 

Change in Church Ideals. — This points to a new idealism 
in the church. Its tasks like those of the new school have 
broadened. It must do more than seek the solution of the 
individual soul and minister to the saints within its own 
congregation. The great business of the church is to get 
the religion of Christ into the whole community and thence 
out over the world. The old, emotional revival will no 
longer suffice, although this probably answered well enough 
its purpose while the nation lived a primitive life. A church 
which is satisfied with periodic outbursts to save souls in- 
stead of utilizing well -organized plans for continued effort 
cannot long remain a vital community force. The simple 
ideals of the past, calling for occasional " protracted meet- 
ings " with their emotional conversions followed by " back- 
slidings " and " re-conversions," can no longer suffice. 
The appeal must be to intelligence and to the will, and 
growth of noble Christian character, which is a continuous 
process. 

Neither will the old rivalry of sect or denomination be 
possible under the new dispensation — each struggling for 
largest membership and greatest local influence. The new 
ideals call for cooperation of churches on the broadest 
Christian lines to lift the whole community and to make it 

^ A Rural Survey of Missouri, p. 3. 



56 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



The Winning' of the West 

After S4yeans 
of organi2:ed Ghurch work 

13.1% 

of the total populationCexckiveof Eu^n.) 

are 
Membens of the Local (Churches 




^=,^ne (^£i/d^, ^re^o/L. 



Fig. 2. — Illustration from " A Survey of Lane County, Oregon. 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 57 

morally and socially wholesome. The new rural church, 
in other words, will not alone have the priestly functions 
and mediate between God and men ; it will mediate be- 
tween man and man as well and will help the farmers to 
live useful, wholesome lives in the community, by taking an 
interest in their work-a-day life — in their social and recre- 
ational affairs, in their institutes and granges, and their 
cooperative creameries and fruit-growing associations. The 
American people of to-day are above everything else prac- 
tical. To make a winning appeal to strong men the church, 
too, must be practical, and learn again to preach, as Moses 
did of old, the holiness of the land. 

Community Service the Test of Church Efficiency. — 
The rural surveys, as said above, disclose a lack of leader- 
ship in the country. The church and school must supply 
-this leadership. The efficient rural church will lead in all 
worthy enterprise in the community. The final test must 
be an ability to serve. Its first labor is to teach the love 
of God in every heart, and its second, to get this love of 
God into everyday life to make justice and fair-dealing part 
of our business relations. The church will stand for clean 
rural politics ; it will encourage sanitary living and take 
an active part in the new sensible recreation and playlife 
needed in the open country ; it will take active part in 
increasing farm production and soil productivity, and 
cooperate with the teacher to give the community efficient 
school education. 

Interdenominational Cooperation a Solution. — " Waste- 
ful sectarianism," says Dr. G. Walter Fiske, " is a sin in the 
city but it is a crime in the country." ^ The full force of 
the statement is felt when the reader realizes that 190 dif- 
ferent sects or denominations are struggling for position within 

^ In The Challenge of the Country, p. 192. 



58 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

the Christian church in our country. This great wasteful- 
ness has long been the regret of sensible, thinking people. 

A hopeful sign for the immediate future is seen in the 
seriousness with which leading denominations are beginning 
to face the problem. Two means of solution are under 
trial : denominational cooperation and denominational fed- 
eration of churches. Of these, the former seems to promise 
the greatest immediate results. Under this plan thoughtful 
leaders lay aside their doctrinal differences and denomina- 
tional prejudices to meet on the common ground of faith in 
one God. The plan provides for (i) a business under- 
standing whereby the denominations will halt church 
competition in communities already sufficiently churched, 
by refusing home mission aid to newly planned congregations 
in such places ; (2) an interdenominational clearing-house 
commission to plan and enforce a closer cooperation of local 
churches both for evangelical advancement and social im- 
provement. Cooperation of this kind will eventually lead 
to federation of churches in many communities. 

Church Federation. — The drawing of a rural com- 
munity in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, which appears 
below, shows an area of exactly twenty-one square miles 
with 662 souls, served by eight churches, all of different 
denominations. Three of these churches lie within a 
fraction of a mile of one another. In Center County, 
Pennsylvania, a similar survey discloses sixteen churches 
within a radius of three miles and twenty-four churches 
within a radius of four miles. Several other churches fall 
just beyond the larger radius, making in all twenty-nine 
churches in a small sparsely-settled community. 

This pitiable splitting up of rural churches makes of 
religion a laughing-stock. Churches like these can do little 
or nothing fof spreading the Gospel, as their time and energy 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 59 

Ckiirclv FederatioiL 
the Next Step. 



"Each SquaT^e TX^p^<^scnts t sq -rmfe 



Methodist 




66^ 
people 
in. 

GorrLraixrtity 



8 
(Zhjujrchjzs 



ICSll 



T^lxis Gommuni^ has 
consolidaiedL its schools 

Fig. 3. — Reproduced from a chart in the possession of the Country Church and Country 
Life Department of the Presbyterian Church of the United States, New York City. 



6o THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

are taken up with keeping themselves ahve. This was 
illustrated recently in the author's old home county and two 
adjacent counties in Missouri, where, according to the sur- 
vey by the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church of the United States, the average church — village 
and open country — spent ninety-two cents out of every 
dollar collected, to keep itself alive, seven cents for missions 
and church boards, and only one cent for local benevolence. 
Under such conditions it is not surprising that rural churches 
have been dying. The fine old state of Missouri has at 
least a thousand dead rural churches, and Illinois, the richest 
among agricultural states, has closed the doors of at least 
seventeen hundred ! 

Leading men within the evangelical churches are working 
to the end of federating the religious institutions in these 
over-churched communities. This form of church co- 
operation provides for closing down all superfluous church 
buildings, whose membership and other church-goers in 
the community are expected to rally to the dominant de- 
nomination. These people may under the federation retain 
standing in their own denominations or, preferably, become 
members of the denomination with which they federate. 
Naturally, such a federation has its drawbacks, and in many 
communities where denominational creed and sentiment 
are strong, is impossible to enforce. In some sections of 
the country, and notably in New England, real progress has 
been made in church federation. It is also interesting to 
know that this movement has a national exponent called 
the Federal Council of Churches of Christ, which counts 
in its organization nearly all the evangelical churches in the 
United States. The Commission of Country Church and 
Rural Life within this great national body is especially 
charged with improving religious conditions in rural districts. 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 6i 

Most Hopeful Improvement through Revitalization with- 
in the Various Denominations. — Unquestionably the most 
promising feature is revitalization coming from within the 
several church bodies — this and the practical business 
cooperation spoken of above. 

Such revitalization takes the form of community service. 
The churches become community builders as truly as do 
the best of the new schools. The new program calls for a 
well-prepared pastor, a man of God who has seen the vision 
of rural needs, who dwells in the midst of his flock, instead 
of residing at some distant county-seat town. The church 
is planned as a social service church. Provision is made 
not alone for the preaching service, but for social gatherings, 
recreation, play life, and meetings of an economic nature. 
The new church and the new school must divide this leader- 
ship. The author was present, several years ago, at the 
annual meeting of a cooperative bacon factory association 
in rural Denmark. The local schoolmaster presided over 
the meeting, and this was opened with prayer by the rural 
pastor. Then followed a religious hymn in which every 
farmer present joined. In this can be seen the secret of 
success in Danish cooperative organizations. There the 
two great rural life institutions, church and school, are 
organized for service. 

Reorganized rural churches are becoming quite numerous, 
and nearly every section of the country can point to some 
prominent rural parish doing splendid work for local 
evangelization.^ 

^ Study especially The Making of a Country Parish, by Rev. Harlow S. Mills, 
and Modern Methods in the Country Church, by Rev. Andrew B. McNutt. These 
brief narratives are typical respectively of the rural village as parish center out- 
reaching evangelization, and the church of the open country as the center of a 
modern community service. 



62 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Teacher and Pastor in Cooperative Service. — Now 

what shall be the teachers' attitude toward the rural pastors 
and their work? Shall they stand aloof as their prede- 
cessors in the schools have done, or shall they throw them- 
selves heart and soul into the parish work? The answer 
to these queries is really self-evident. 

Every well-poised rural teacher will naturally participate 
in local church activities as would any other member of the 
community. But the teacher must take an active interest 
in the religious life of the community as well because of the 
inseparableness of the church and school as the fundamental 
institution in community life. Teachers should study this 
question as earnestly as they would the school question, 
and when they come into a new community seek the co- 
operation of the local pastor — if there is one — and, In 
case church Interests are unorganized, work to the end of 
getting a resident pastor in the community. 

This chapter has been written particularly to show the 
teachers the naturally intimate relation of the two institu- 
tions and to explain how the two have suffered together, in 
the great rural transition, and how they must stand together 
and cooperate if the best results are to be attained. Further 
suggestions on how the teacher may best prepare for this 
relationship are given in the readings at the close of the 
chapter. 

The Young Men's Christian Association, an Important 
Ally. — The most efficient ally of the rural pastor and rural 
teacher Is the county w^orker of the Young Men's Christian 
Association. The term ally Is good, for the Young Men's 
Christian Association neither can nor wishes to be more. 
As we have already learned above, this great organization 
supplements but does not supplant ; it cooperates but does 
not compete. The county workers never Interfere with 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 63 

the established, legitimate fields of religion and education ; 
but the Young Men's Christian Association is in a position, 
by reason of its unique organization, to encourage, aid, and 
stimulate both institutions through direct appeal to the 
youth of the countryside in a way that it alone is capable 
of doing. 

The Young Men's Christian Association was for years 
essentially a city organization. But in 1889 a small begin- 
ning was made to embrace in the organization the boys of 
the one-half of the nation living in the country. The 
county work — as the rural organization is known — has 
made a particularly marked advance the last five or six years. 

The national rural organization is under the immediate 
direction of the rural work secretary, who is one of the 
secretaries of the International Committee. Under him 
are state and county secretaries and local committees, the 
latter comprising select groups of influential men giving 
moral and financial assistance to the work. The map of 
the United States included herewith gives a fair idea of the 
scope of state activities up to 191 3. The vertical dark 
gray areas represent states in which county work is being 
done under local subcommittees of the state committee with 
a state secretary of county work. The diagonal dark gray 
shaded areas show states in which county work is being 
done under general state committee supervision. The 
diagonal light gray areas give states in which work in 
charge of a state secretary is just being perfected, while 
the horizontal light gray area give states which have re- 
quested such organization. 

The county, rather than the village corporation or school 
district, has been made the unit of organization. Each 
unit is in charge of a county committee, headed by a care- 
fully-trained county secretary who i§ charged with the 



64 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 




4. — Map showing activities of the Rural Y. M. C. A. Reproduced, with 
permission, from "Rural Manhood." 



Fig. 



immediate work among the young men and boys. Seventy- 
nine counties in twenty-seven states had been organized 
up to 1914, with a membership of 16,000 and many workers 
not counted in actual membership. The counties are sub- 
divided into 773 working communities which reported for 
the year, 1914, 18,981 in physical work, 50,899 in attendance 
on lectures, and 120,042 in Bible study. The graphic chart 
shown below gives a good idea of the rapid increase of these 
county activities. 

The chief task of the county organization is character- 
building. With the decline in rural church and school, and 
loosening of home discipline, the urgent need for such an 
organization has become recognized. The county secre- 
taries, who receive their preparation at the summer as- 
semblies at Silver Bay, Lake Geneva, Estes Park, and else- 
where under religious workers and rural life leaders of 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 65 



Five Years' Advance Graphically Told 

OF ACTIVITIES IN COUNTY WORK 



Operating in 
Communities 



1909 > 1910 

02 




[embers ft I 



1913-1914 „ 

7,513 



INCREASE I39>S 



Total Lecture 
Attendance 



1909-1910 

7,886 



INCREASE 
545/0 



1919 -1914 

50,899 



I9I3-I9I 

15^21 




INCREASE 



IN 

Physic 




I9($9-I9I0 

2,855 



INCREASE 
564 /o 




Total Attendance Countu Committees 
Boifs'BihleStudif witft Secretaries 

..SBSS5BSK 



io;o 

County Committees 
Spend 





1913- 1914 

79 

INCREASE 

lOT/o 



IN 

Aaricultural 




ontests 



1911 

1072 



ii^osE 456X 




Fig. 5. — A story of the growth in Y. M. C. A. county work. 
(From "Rural Manhood.") 



66 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

national repute, first build up in the county a sound busi- 
ness organization called the county committee, comprising 
business men of all kinds known for their integrity and public 
spirit. These become the local assistants in the religious, 
educational, and social work. The kinds of activities pur- 
sued depend largely on local needs. In general they in- 
clude those which will make the most ready appeal to youth 
and at the same time are wholesome and character-building. 
They include athletic meets, summer camps, play festivals, 
agricultural contests, conferences, lectures, and Bible study. 

The association work is non-denominational and yet in- 
terdenominational. It is a layman's movement, enrolling 
in its Bible-study classes many who are not church members, 
but a large number of these young men are each year won 
for Christ, chiefly through the personal contact with the 
strong men in charge of the work. 

The County Division of the Young Women's Christian 
Association. — It is" only natural that the successful work 
among the young men and boys in rural communities 
should at an early date be organized for their sisters also. 
This has recently been done under the leadership of Miss 
Jessie Field, formerly county superintendent of schools in 
Page County, Iowa, and other capable associates. The 
work of the new organization is in principle and method 
largely patterned after the brother organization. Because 
of this similarity and its more recent origin it is not neces- 
sary to go into further details of its activities here. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Show clearly what is the place of the church in American rural life. 
Give the story of church transition in rural America. 
What do you mean by the change in church ideals mentioned in this 
chapter ? Explain . 



THE CHURCH AND ALLIED AGENCIES IN RURAL LIFE 67 



HELPING TO MAKE COUNTRY LIFE 
MORE SATISFYING. 



Tbe Rural Y.M.G. A. Work 



COVERS WINDSOR COUNTY. 




HEADQUARTERS 
WHITE RIVER JCt. 



DO ANY OF THESE LINES 
TOUCH YOU? 

IF NOT, WRITE THE SECRETARV. 



Fig. 6. — Cover page of a folder circulated by the Windsor 
County, Vermont, Y. M. C. A. 



68 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Can your church stand the efficiency test of community service ? Does 
it have a resident pastor ? How is its social service organized ? 

Distinguish between church cooperation and church federation. Which 
is practiced in your community ? 

Can you see why the most hopeful outlook is for revitalization of church 
service from within the different denominations, rather than through 
immediate federation? 

Explain why all well-poised teachers should cooperate with all their 
soul in the work of the social-service church. 

What is meant by saying the rural Young Men's Christian Association 
and the Young Women's Christian Association are allies of the church 
and school ? Explain fully. 

Has your county an organized rural Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion ? If so, tell of the relationship between its leaders and the teachers. 

Do you read Rural Manhood, the valuable magazine published by the 
County Work Division of the International Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation ? If not, send for sample copy to the Editor, 124 East 28th Street, 
New York City. 

Special Studies 

"Rural Christian Forces." — Fiske's Challenge of the Country, pp. 
173-222. 

"The Call of the Country Parish. " — Butterfield's The Country Church 
and the Rural Problem, pp. 131-153. 

"The Church at the Center." — Wilson, Entire book, 98 pp. 

"The Making of the Country Parish." — Mills, Entire book, 126 pp. 



CHAPTER V 

Other Educational Agencies and Organizations 
Adapted to Cooperation with the Rural Teachers 

This chapter is devoted to a brief discussion of other 
agencies, or organizations, which should be famiHar to the 
teacher because of the important part they have in rural 
improvement. Some of the organizations are essentially 
social in aim ; others are primarily for business purposes ; 
but all of them afford excellent opportunity for cooperation 
on the part of the teacher to the end stated above. 

AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS FOR ADULTS 

The Grange, a Social-Educational Agency. — The Grange, 
or Patrons of Husbandry, as it is officially known, is essen- 
tially a social-educational organization of farmers. The 
society was organized in Washington, D.C., in 1867, to 
advance the general interests of agricultural life. The 
originator was O. H. Kelley, a clerk in the Department of 
Agriculture. In 1866 he was deputed by the Government 
to make a tour of inspection in the Southern States to ascer- 
tain the true condition of agricultural life and the best 
means for its improvement. The deplorable state of the 
farming population resulting from freeing the negro slaves 
and the subsequent struggle for readjustment convinced 
Mr. Kelley " that organization was vitally necessary, as 
well for the farmers' self-protection as for their advancement 
by use of scientific methods of cultivation and the enact- 

69 



70 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

ment of laws favorable to them." Soon after his return 
to Washington, therefore, he, with six others who had 
caught the fire of his zeal, organized the National Grange 
of Patrons of Husbandry. From a humble beginning 
the order grew by leaps and bounds, until in 1875 when 
the high tide of its early growth was reached the na- 
tional organization boasted 21,697 subordinate granges 
with a membership of 320 in each 100,000 of agricultural 
population. 

Soon after its organization the order drew up a Declara- 
tion of Purposes which, for clearness and forcefulness in 
enunciation of vital principles, has seldom been equaled. 
These purposes were, briefly, to bring all farmers together, 
through organization and cooperation, to the end of secur- 
ing their mental, moral, and social advancement. All 
personal, local, sectional, national prejudices and un- 
healthy rivalry and selfish ambition were to be suppressed. 
To promote their material interests, producers and con- 
sumers were to be brought into as friendly and direct 
relations as possible, through the elimination of all super- 
fluous middlemen. The purposes were further : to en- 
courage a better relation between the farmers and public 
transportation companies ; to strive to remove existing 
antagonism between capital and labor ; to advance the 
cause of education among farmers and their children by 
all just powers ; to refrain, as an order, from political or- 
ganization or participation ; to encourage members as 
American citizens "to do all they can in their own party to 
put down bribery, corruption, and trickery " ; and to in- 
culcate a proper appreciation of the abilities and sphere of 
farm women. 

Quite naturally, an order conceived in such lofty motives 
would draw self-seekers of all kinds into its fold. Some 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 71 

sought its alliance in order to gain political preferment, 
others for material ends. Sufficient to relate, that the high 
tide of power in the early 70's found many local and state 
granges breaking away from their early faith and plunging 
into politics and gigantic schemes for the control of trade, 
both domestic and international in character. The Grange 
of the Middle West, particularly, was unwise and accord- 
ingly suffered the penalty. But while many granges in 
the West died or at least fell into ill-repute, most of the 
order in the New England and Middle Atlantic States had 
remained true to their pledge and continued to prosper. 

Since then, there has been a rebirth of the Grange every- 
where. It has become tempered by the fire it went through 
and is likely hereafter to adhere faithfully to its original 
declaration of principles. In recent years the Grange has 
been instrumental in securing many acts of greatest value 
to agricultural progress. Among them the Interstate 
Commerce Act, the Oleomargarine Law, the Hatch Act or 
Experiment Station Act, the law making the head of the 
Department of Agriculture a Cabinet officer, the estab- 
lishment of pure food laws, and the more recent Parcel 
Post Law. 

As discussed in former chapters, American rural folk 
must learn to cooperate as do the agriculturists of con- 
tinental Europe. The early efforts of the Grange were 
certainly of this nature, but, unfortunately, not always 
animated by the true cooperative spirit. But the dearly 
bought lessons have had both a sobering and a clarifying 
effect. The great schemes for trade conquest are things 
of the past. A new conservative and wholly legitimate 
business field is now being promoted with success by state 
and local granges. This includes mutual fire, hail, and 
tornado insurance ; mutual telephone companies ; coopera- 



72 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

tive creameries and cheese factories ; with occasional farm- 
ers' elevator companies, and other organizations for buying 
and selling. 

But the social and educational service of the Grange is, 
after all, of chief importance. It is the social organization 
par excellence of the rural community. Being a secret 
order, it does not reach all the people of the community. 
This has sometimes been held against it. The member- 
ship is open to all worthy people, as it is not limited to men, 
but includes, as well, women, and children over fourteen 
years of age. 

Unquestionably, this feature of including in the social 
group the hard-worked farm wife and the children who have 
reached their years of discretion, is the strongest point in 
the organization. The weekly meetings of the local grange 
are social. There are music and readings, plays and other 
forms of entertainment. The programs are also educa- 
tional in a more restricted sense, as they always contain 
definite discussions in agricultural and rural education. 
At all these meetings the farmers have opportunity to learn 
to think on their feet and master the simple parliamentary 
ways that stand them well in hand elsewhere. Here they 
have the opportunity to plan the educational improvement 
of the community, as for example in standardizing the 
small schools, in reorganizing them as consolidated schools, 
or in establishing rural high schools for the community. 
Wherever local granges flourish, the schools- are usually 
organized to teach the children in terms of everyday life 
activities. 

In organization the local grange is the unit. Three or more 
subordinate granges — generally including all the organiza- 
tions within a county — may form the larger unit, known 
as the Pomona Grange. From the latter are organized the 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 73 

state granges, being delegate bodies, and from the state 
masters again the National Grange, which meets annually 
and shapes the policies of the state and local granges. Many 
of the local orders own their own grange halls, reared in the 
community near the school and the church, helping thereby 
to centralize the consciousness of the community at its 
own natural center. 

The Teacher as a Granger. — The Grange invites into 
its membership rural teachers, preachers, and physicians. 
Certainly it is difficult to conceive of a better way for the 
teacher to reach the heart of rural community life than 
through the medium of the grange. To be an active granger 
does not preclude the teacher from leadership in other 
rural organizations. Scores of community-leading teachers 
are grangers. Many hold the important office of " lec- 
turer " in the local grange, which gives them opportunity 
to plan and direct the social-educational programs of the 
weekly and occasional meetings. 

At the State Normal School, Kirksville, Missouri, by 
way of illustration, the local grange includes, besides the 
farmers of the community, members of the faculty of the 
Rural School Division of the Normal School and student- 
teachers who are preparing to go out as rural teachers. 
The meetings of the grange are held in the Model Rural 
School on the Normal School campus, where the teachers 
are also initiated into the beautiful mysteries of the order. 
A faculty member is master of the Pomona Grange and 
lecturer of the state grange. 

Other Farmers' Organizations of Interest to Teachers. — 
The Farmers' Union is the leading agricultural organiza- 
tion of the South. While organized primarily to improve 
the economic condition of its patrons, the order lays great 
stress on improved educational and social facilities among 



74 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

rural people, as may be seen from the by-laws which con- 
tain the following: '' To labor for the education of the 
agricultural classes in the science of crop diversification 
and scientific agriculture ; to constantly strive to secure 
entire harmony and good will among all mankind, and 
brotherly love among ourselves ; to form a more adequate 
union with those in authority for a more rigid and impartial 
enforcement of the law, that crime, vice, and immorality 
may be suppressed." 

The order was organized in Texas, in 1902. Since then 
it has spread to every Southern State, and to som.e in the 
North and West. At the time of writing the Farmers* 
Union claims a membership of approximately 3,000,000, 
thus considerably outnumbering any similar order. The 
Farmers' Union, like the Grange, welcomes cooperation 
with rural teachers. Many of the most successful schools 
in the South and West have become the effective institu- 
tions they are through the loyal support and constant en- 
couragement of the Union. 

Unattached Fanners' Clubs. — Some people are preju- 
diced against secret organizations and do not care to join 
such orders as the Grange or Farmers' Union ; others may be 
disqualified, for some reason, from holding membership in 
them. It is essential that these people take active part in 
community organization of some kind as suggested in a 
former chapter. The city has its business men's club or 
commercial exchange. It becomes the business men's 
clearing house and, in a more limited sense, the social home 
of its membership. Similar clubs are springing up among 
the farmers in many sections. They have come into ex- 
istence usually as a result of the good work done by national 
and local extension workers, including in its list county 
agents, rural teachers, ministers, and Young Men's Chris- 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 75 

tian Association workers. Clubs of this kind promote 
community social life through public gatherings devoted to 
amusement, rallying all its men, women, and children for 
the basket dinner, which is followed with music, readings, 
games, and athletic sports. The more serious economic 
problems are considered in special business sessions, when 
questions of cooperative enterprise — of community buying 
and selling, of organizing cow-testing associations and stock- 
breeding societies and the like — come up for consideration 
and action. Some farmers' clubs have taken on the force 
of a distinct movement as the '' Hesperia Movement " in 
Michigan or the " Amenia Annual Play Festival " in New 
York State. Many clubs limit their activities to social- 
educational betterment, as in the instance of the last men- 
tioned ; although some endeavor to cover the more inclusive 
field of economic, educational, scientific, social, and pro- 
motive activities. 

Home and School Improvement Associations. — As sug- 
gested in the name, these associations are restricted to an 
intimate relation of school patrons to the teacher in a co- 
operative endeavor to improve the schools. This often 
begins in a small way with a public " clean-up " day of the 
school premises. Out of it comes organization. Trees 
and flowers are planted. Interest grows, and with it a pride 
of accomplishment. To demand better school support is 
a next step, and, if the teacher is judicious in nurturing the 
new educational consciousness, great results may ensue. 

The South, more particularly than other sections, has 
accomplished remarkable school reforms by means of home 
and school improvement associations. The explanation of 
this is probably the comparative poverty under which many 
schools have been obliged to struggle, coupled with the 
remarkable renaissance of the Southern school systems, to 



76 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

make them as thoroughgoing and progressive as in any sec- 
tion of the nation. This demanded a general stirring up of 
indifferent patrons, and their organization into associations 
to promote school improvement, by further influencing 
public opinion, by actually meeting at the school premises 
and cleaning them up, painting them, planting trees and 
shrubs, and, in a pinch, by supplementing school taxes with 
their own personal funds to make the improvements possible. 

Virginia furnishes a good illustration of these home and 
school activities. In 1906 the state organized a Coopera- 
tive Education Association of representative men and 
women throughout the state, which works in conjunction 
with the State Department of Education. The central as- 
sociation has organized its '' School and Civic League " over 
the entire state. The purpose is to meet at the school- 
houses of the state not less than once a month to consider 
questions of vital importance to the school community and 
to take steps to improve where improvement is needed. 
The leagues have done much to create sentiment for good 
schools and to coordinate them with farm life ; they have, 
moreover, had the effect of socializing the communities 
where they are well-organized, through literary and social 
programs. 

Rural Parent-Teacher Associations. — The improvement 
associations just discussed include in their activities the 
children as well as parents and teachers. In some places 
more restricted rural parent-teacher associations are being 
formed, similar in purpose to the national parent- teacher 
association, now well-established in city communities. 

The parent- teacher association in America is an outgrowth 
of the National Congress of Mothers, a great organization 
formed at Washington nineteen years ago to promote civic 
and social betterment, through intelligent study and care of 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 77 

the nation's children. The aims of the Mothers' Congress 
are well stated in their constitution, which reads in part : 
" to raise the standards of home life ; to give young people 
opportunities to learn how to take care of children ; to 
bring into closer relations the home and the school, that 
parents and teachers may cooperate intelligently in the 
education of the child ; to surround the childhood of the 
whole world with that loving wise care in the impressionable 
years of life that will develop good citizens instead of law- 
breakers and criminals ; to use systematic and earnest 
effort to this end through the formation of parent-teacher 
associations in every public school and elsewhere." 

Gf recent years the responsibilities of the school in child 
training have multiplied, since the home and church find 
this task more difficult of accomplishment under the pressure 
of modern conditions than it was in the old household- 
economy period. But even now, parents and teachers must 
share in the guidance of the children. The past lack of 
cooperation and mutual understanding has been detri- 
mental to the children. To remedy this, the parent- teacher 
association came into being. 

Parents and teachers mingle freely in their meetings, and 
exchange views on child rearing and child training. The 
new information enables parents to become better home- 
makers for their children, and the teachers to understand 
better the educational needs of the individual children 
under their care. Home and school are drawn into a new 
heart-to-heart relationship, making of the parents ardent 
champions of school education and all school improvement ; 
while the teacher, encouraged and cheered by the new 
partnership of home and school, is enabled to project the 
school's activities into the life of the community in a way 
hitherto unknown. 



78 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

There should be a parent-teacher association in every 
rural community. Rural teachers must depend largely 
on their own ingenuity. They have no supervisor at their 
elbow to lean on. They have the choice of shutting them- 
selves up in their own little chamber after school, or of 
organizing their supersensitive, critical patrons into an 
association where good-fellowship, harmony, and under- 
standing of purpose shall prevail. In communities where 
rural teachers have organized these associations the schools 
usually prosper and the teachers prosper with them. Dis- 
tricts that formerly were too poor to repair the old school- 
houses have erected new buildings, and means have been 
found to increase the teachers' salaries. Rural teachers 
can do no better than to begin planning such associations 
at the earliest convenience. As a first step it would be 
well to study the literature on the subject.^ 

ORGANIZATIONS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 

Rural Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls. — The Boy 

Scouts of America are beginning to find representation in 
rural districts under the name of rural boy scouts. The 
organization takes advantage of the tendency among 
adolescent boys to form gangs. This craving for associa- 
tion is turned to noble uses. Through his troop the scout 
learns to love his fellow man and respect the rights of others. 
As he passes from tenderfoot rank through second class to 
first class scout, he learns to live the scout law — he must 
be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, 
obedient, cheerful, brave, clean, reverent. Rural teachers 
bear testimony to the value of scout organizations in their 

^ Send for "How to Organize Parent-Teacher Associations" to the Correspond- 
ing Secretary of the National Congress of Mothers, Washington, D.C. 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 79 

schools. Discipline becomes simple through the tacit 
understanding of helpfulness bet^veen scouts and scout 
master. The study of nature environment, of geography 
and history, of agriculture and farm sanitation, takes on a 
new charm and interest. The scouts, wherever carefully 
organized, promise much for the new leadership repeatedly 
mentioned in these pages. 

The corresponding organization for girls is the Camp 
Fire Girls, and more recently also the Girl Scouts. Both 
teach those things which are broadening and vital in the 
girl's life. The camp fire girl is taught to love nature's 
ways and to be domestic. The whole aim may be summed 
up in the camp fire law, which is ''to seek beauty, give 
service, pursue knowledge, be trustworthy, hold on to 
health, glorify work, be happy." 

The Blue Birds is a sister organization of the camp fire 
girls, for those between six and twelve years of age. Under 
the leadership of their guardians the smaller children are 
given the " true inheritance of childhood's joy and experi- 
ences " in the play, the folk dance, and the fairy tale. From 
" nestling " in the local group, they become " fledgling," 
and finally " flyer," after which they may be advanced to 
the senior organization. 

Farm Defenders is a new organization to parallel the 
Boy Scouts for the younger boys like the Blue Birds for 
the Camp Fire Girls. It is planned for boys under twelve 
years of age who are banded to defend the farm home and 
countryside against its natural enemies, in the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms, as they are the loyal protectors of its 
friends in birds and insects and toads. ^ 

^ For a full statement of the Farm Defenders of Rural America, see Kirksville 
State Normal School Rural School Messenger, Kirksville, Missouri, Vol. Ill, No. 5. 
Write for a copy of the magazine. 



8o THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Boys' and Girls' Industrial Clubs. — No organization, 
combining school and home activities, has been of greater 
value in awakening community interest than have the boys' 
and girls' industrial clubs. They are organized primarily 
to teach the dignity of honest labor and to give instruction 
intended to master the vital phases of agricultural life. 
The range of club activities is almost unlimited, beginning 
with corn and tomato clubs and including the whole gamut 
of activities as potato-growing, fruit-growing, poultry- 
raising, baby beef-raising, sewing, cooking, implement- 
making, and many others. 

The industrial clubs are promoted by national and state 
governments, by local organizations of all kinds, granges. 
Young Men's Christian Associations, churches, and schools. 
The rural teacher has no greater means at his disposal to 
coordinate home and school activities than just such clubs 
as these. How this is being done throughout the country 
will be told in detail later in the book. 



NATIONAL AND STATE AGENCIES 

The United States Bureau of Education and Educational 
Extension. — This Bureau was created by Act of Congress 
in 1867, in answer to a public demand for a general agency 
which could furnish state and local educational authorities 
with accurate information in regard to education in this 
and other countries, and could make investigations of vital 
educational problems, and otherwise be an educational 
clearinghouse for the nation. 

The Bureau is under the direction of a Commissioner of 
Education, and its activities are classified under sixteen 
divisions in charge of specialists and collaborators attached 
to educational institutions over the country. The chart 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 8i 






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82 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

on page 8i gives some idea of the comprehensiveness of 
the work of the educational arm of the Federal Government. 

Of greatest interest to the present discussion is the Rural 
School Division, established in 1912, which serves the 243,000 
rural schools of the nation. From small beginnings the 
Division has grown until it has a well-organized staff of 
specialists and assistants with nearly a hundred collaborators 
in the field. It is organized to give expert information and 
advice on questions pertaining to rural life and education. 
Rural teachers can get direct assistance by addressing this 
division of the Bureau. Perplexing questions on school 
organization, the rural school course of study, school con- 
solidation, and the like may be referred to it for aid. Every 
country-life teacher should be on the mailing lists of the 
Bureau of Education for its many free bulletins on rural 
school and rural life topics and occasional rural school 
letters. Recently the Bureau has organized a National 
Rural Teachers' Reading Circle, which is explained in the 
next chapter of this book. 

Federal and State Governments Cooperating for Agri- 
cultural Improvement. — Every rural teacher should under- 
stand how the nation and the several states have joined 
their forces to improve the nation's agricultural life. The 
county agricultural expert, where does he come from ? 
And the institute workers who appear occasionally in the 
community? And the moving school for rural uplift? 
They should all be familiar to the teachers, who will soon 
be expected to cooperate with these workers in school and 
out of it. 

The Extension Service. — A great national extension 
service has been organized through Federal, state, and 
local cooperation. The United States Department of 
Agriculture has a thoroughly equipped States Relation 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 83 

Service, working through a number of department bureaus, 
which culminates in a great field service for the North and 
West and a separate service for the South. The Govern- 
ment field workers, it will appear from the chart, cooperate 
with the extension service of the state agricultural colleges. 

ORGA/\//ZAWA/ OFAGf^CUnU/ML EXTEA/iS/ON mRK/A/7?/£ON/7ED ST/ITES. 



I D£W/?rMENr OF /K^R/CUL7V/?E. I 



I COLLEGE OFAGRfCUL7U/?£\ 




SPEQMUSrS. 



STATE LEADER. 



Fig. 



- Chart prepared by the U. S. Department of Agriculture for the 
Educational exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. 



The state colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts were 
established under the Morrill Act of 1862, which set aside 
large tracts of land from the public domain for their main- 
tenance. This was further strengthened by a second act 
in 1890 which provided liberal financial assistance to the 
land-grant colleges, as these schools are now called. Much 
of the Federal aid has gone for extension work. The state 
colleges of agriculture are organized for three main purposes : 
teaching, research, and extension. The first is a natural 
function of all schools of this class. Agricultural research 
is accomplished through the experiment stations, organized 
in connection with the agricultural colleges, under the 



84 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Hatch Act of 1887. Finally comes the college extension 
service which is largely Federal-aided. 

The Smith-Lever Act. — The year 19 14 marked a monu- 
mental stage in agricultural reorganization through Federal 
aid. In that year the Smith-Lever Act went into effect. 
It is reasonable to believe that when the large sums provided 
under the act become fully available, agricultural extension 
in the United States will have as great facilities for thorough 
organization as in the best organized nations of Europe. 
The Act provides for cooperation between the Federal Gov- 
ernment and the state governments, under which one school 
in each state receives an annually increasing sum to be 
expended for scientific agricultural extension work. By 
this is meant instruction and practical demonstration in 
agriculture and home economics to persons not in college 
attendance. It is intended for the busy man and woman, 
and is given in various communities throughout the states 
in farmers' institutes, lecture courses, correspondence 
courses, one-week movable schools, and in other ways in- 
cluded under extension teaching. Under the Act each state 
receives $10,000 annually, without any condition attached. 
The additional annual increases are based on the ratio of 
rural population in the state to the total rural population 
of the country, and all the additional amounts must in- 
variably be duplicated by the states. 

Agricultural Extension Agents. — The ultimate work of 
the agricultural extension service is in the hands of county 
agricultural agents who carry the new propaganda direct 
to the farmers' doors. One of the many reasons for the 
remarkable success of Danish agricultural organization is 
the intimate relation of just such government experts with 
small groups of farmers. As much can reasonably be ex- 
pected in the United States from this new movement. 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 85 

About eleven hundred county agents are already in the 
service in many sections of the country. 

The origin of the farm demonstration movement in the 
United States dates back to 1902, when it was organized 
by the United States Department of Agriculture at a time 
when the Mexican cotton boll weevil was just beginning its 
devastation. Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, at that time established the first demon- 
stration farm at Terrell, Texas, for the purpose of showing 
that cotton could be grown to advantage in spite of the 
pests, and that in any case a diversification of crops would 
solve the problem for the farmers. In 1906 the General 
Education Board entered into an agreement with the De- 
partment of Agriculture, under which it financed the dem- 
onstration work in certain states while the Government 
financed it in others. The demonstration agents, however, 
were all under Government direction. From these begin- 
nings the movement has spread over the entire country. 
In may counties the agents do much of their work through 
the schools. And wise indeed are the teachers who take 
this opportunity to get expert assistance in club work, 
gardening, and other forms of elementary agriculture.^ 

The Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act. — Mean- 
while, the President has just signed — February, 1917 — 
the so-called Smith-Hughes Act, which extends Federal aid 
for the promotion of vocational education to pupils above 
14 years of age. The purpose of the law is to encourage 
secondary schools, both rural and urban, to offer well- 
planned courses in agriculture, the trades, and in industrial 

^ The teacher should communicate with Dr. P. G. Holden, Director of the 
Agricultural Extension Service of the International Harvester Company, Chicago. 
This corporation loans to teachers and others a large variety of lecture charts, 
lantern slides, motion pictures, and industrial exhibits of great educational value. 



S6 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

subjects, including home economics. This aid is granted 
for the purpose of cooperating with the States in paying the 
salaries of teachers, supervisors, and directors of agricultural 
subjects, and for the purpose of paying the salaries of teachers 
of the trades, home economics, and industrial subjects. 
The Government appropriates $500,000 the first year for 
salaries of teachers in agricultural subjects and a similar sum 
for teachers in the trades and industries. These amounts 
increase, year by year, so that when they finally mature in 
1926, $6,000,000, will be available for these purposes. In a 
similar way, $500,000 is set aside the first year for the purpose 
of preparing teachers, supervisors, and directors of agricul- 
tural subjects, and teachers in trades and industries. This 
amount will increase, year by year, till by 1921 it reaches the 
sum of $1,000,000, which will be paid annually thereafter. 
The total appropriation for salaries and teacher- training will 
thus ultimately reach $7,000,000 a year. 

A national commission of seven, including the Secretaries 
of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, and the Commissioner 
of Education, together with three persons appointed by 
the President, cooperate with state boards appointed by 
the several states in administering the federal funds. The 
actual utilization of the funds will be through the agricul- 
tural colleges in most states, and the normal schools in a few 
others. 

THE RURAL LIBRARY AND THE RURAL PRESS 

The Reading Community and Rural Progress. — Foreign 
students of rural life are often struck by the fact that Ameri- 
can farm folk do not read as they should. No better evi- 
dence of this is needed than a casual examination of the 
collection of books and periodicals to be found in many 
rural homes. Unquestionably the old system of schooling 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 87 

is largely responsible for this. For it furnished the mere 
mechanical tools of reading without inculcating a real love 
and craving for continued reading beyond the school. But 
the school must not get all the blame. The agricultural 
population of a young nation like the American will first 
seek the so-called necessaries of life. Reading — which, if 
correctly understood is a necessity — has with us been 
classed as belonging to the leisure class, of whom there are 
yet comparatively few in the open country. 

It is a noticeable fact that broad reading and community 
progress are inseparable. The leaders in every community 
have learned to read broadly and to think deeply on ques- 
tions of vital importance. The new schools must see their 
opportunity for service in this truth. There is no better 
illustration of this influence than the Danish folk high 
schools. These institutions are " culture " schools pure and 
simple. The subject matter is devoted mainly to history 
and literature, with some time for rural sociology and 
economics. The love of cultural study of the right kind 
inculcated in the schools, more than the practical agricul- 
tural courses, has made the Danes thinkers and leaders 
among agricultural nations. 

The Teacher's Twofold Opportunity. — The teacher 
must himself be well read and know how to transmit this 
ability and desire to others. His opportunity may be said 
to be twofold, since he has not alone the children in school 
to guide, but their parents at home to assist as well. In 
school his function is to teach the children to read broadly 
the best books, teaching early that textbooks are mere 
compendiums to be supplemented on every hand. Liberal 
reading leads to independent thinking. It inspires the 
child to extend his search for knowledge beyond the narrow 
confines of the schools so that it eventually becomes a life 



88 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

process, to be pursued throughout Hfe. Beyond the school 
the teacher's task is to direct the attention of the adult 
population to the best and most useful reading. He has 
opportunity to assist in sifting out the trash so often read 
and to suggest and assist in procuring what agricultural folk 
need in general and practical literature. In this work the 
wise teacher finds an ever-ready agency in modern library 
organization.^ 

Rural Library Extension. — The old idea of a library as 
a collection of fiction, juveniles, and so-called classics is 
passing away. Neither is the library nowadays a repository 
where books are kept to be handed down for future genera- 
tions. It is organized to be used. The most important 
feature in library extension of the last quarter century is 
the organization of traveling libraries within the reach of 
all people. The book collections are sent out by state library 
associations and by township or county library organiza- 
tions, and placed at the disposal of schools, women's clubs, 
farmers' clubs, granges, rural Young Men's and Young 
Women's Christian Associations, and other active agencies. 
In the new collections may be found the latest literature 
on alfalfa and septic tanks, county unit organization and 
road construction, better school buildings and consolida- 
tion, house furnishing and home sanitation, school lunches 
and farm health. The best in general literature is also 
included. The library even supplies programs for club 
meetings and entertainments, or pictures of costumes for 
plays and pageants, and in other ways furnishes aids to its 
readers. 

The success of the modern organization is due largely 
to the excellent work of the state library commissions which 

^The teacher should send to the Home Education Division, U. S. Bureau of 
Education, for its suggestive lists and helps on reading for the farm home. 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 89 

now exist in thirty-six states. The commissions carry on 
campaigns for the estabHshment of new libraries and the 
improvement of methods of operation. In New York 
State, by way of illustration, the commission holds regular 
institutes for rural library workers in different parts of the 
state. The commissions encourage better reading and the 
purchase of better books and assist state departments of 
education in selecting lists of books for school libraries, 
pupils' reading circles, etc. In several states they attend 
to the distribution of a state fund among small libraries 
which come up to a standard of book buying and manage- 
ment. 

Traveling Library Organization. — Successful traveling 
libraries are in operation in many states. Their organiza- 
tion may be exemplified in New York, one of the states 
that has made special progress in this direction. In New 
York there is no commission, but the work is carried on 
by the Division of Educational Extension of the New 
York State Library in the Traveling Library system, 
which sends out from headquarters collections of from 
twenty-five to two hundred or three hundred books to 
small communities. There they are placed in a store or in 
the schoolhouse, or perhaps in the village hall or clubroom. 
The headquarters offtce appoints some one in the com- 
munity — very often the local teacher — to be responsible 
for the books, to see that they are properly loaned and 
returned, and that the records are properly kept. 

The books sent out to each station may be borrowed 
without charge, usually for two-week periods, a fine being 
charged when they are kept overtime. At the end of a 
stated period, perhaps every three months, the case of books 
is sent back to headquarters, or to another station, and is 
replaced by a new selection of books. In this way people 



go THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

in each locality are able to enjoy a constantly changing 
variety of good recent books on every subject, as well as 
fiction. Local readers may request special books from the 
headquarters, through the station. In general the regular 
shipments are made up from a rotating series of lists, so 
that in time every book from the headquarters will reach 
every station. 

The County Library System. — This is the latest and by 
far the most successful type of rural library work. It 
originated in Ohio, and one of the best known activities of 
Van Wert County, Ohio, is the Brumbach Library. This 
library, whose building was given by Mr. Brumbach several 
years ago, is supported by county taxation, and is the 
center for a library service which reaches all parts of the 
county. Fifteen country storekeepers are its '' branch 
librarians," and loi rural school teachers are the custodians 
of its schoolroom stations. In 1913 there were 115,550 
registered borrowers, besides 2435 school borrowers. Over 
90,000 books were loaned in one year. 

In Oregon the county library system has also been most 
successful. In Multnomah County, the Portland Public 
Library acts as the central headquarters, and carries on a 
system of traveling libraries to a chain of country stores 
and schoolhouses. Several of the other counties have 
organized the service. 

It is in California, however, that the county system has 
been carried out on such a large, carefully planned, and 
satisfactory scale as to excite the interest of the whole 
country. The entire state will soon be covered by the 
system, each county catching the enthusiasm from its 
neighbor. The county is the unit, and each county or- 
ganizes on its own desire, taxes itself, appoints its own 
librarian, buys the books it wishes, and carries on its work 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 91 

without let or hindrance. CaHfornia started with a state 
system of traveHng Hbraries several years ago, but distances 
are great, and the difficulties of operating one service in a 
state which is 700 miles long, proved the need of a plan 
which would bring the organization nearer to the patrons. 
In the county system, the county headquarters is within a 
day's ride of the stations in nearly all cases. 

The chief point of excellence of the California system is 
that it operates under a state law so full and complete as 
to cover every contingency that may arise ; allows for a 
flexible cooperation and even consolidation between county 
and public libraries, as local needs may suggest ; and, best 
of all, provides that when a county adopts the system it 
must automatically levy a tax upon itself, just as it does 
for public schools, sufficient to carry on the service in an 
adequate manner. This tax may be as much as one mill 
on each dollar of assessed valuation of the county. 

Instructing Rural Teachers in Library Economy. — Many 
training schools for teachers and state and local library 
organizations offer instruction in library economy. Some 
normal schools, indeed, place such value on this work 
that they will not permit any teacher to graduate until he 
has completed certain phases of library economy. Naturally 
such teachers become familiar with the whole gamut of 
library progress and know how to procure the books their 
communities need, and, better still, know what is needed. 
They will know how to get traveling library collections 
for their school ; how to secure good reading for the young 
people beyond ordinary school age ; how to get books and 
periodicals for mothers' organizations and for the agri- 
cultural clubs. 

The Rural Press and the Teacher. — A powerful influence 
in rural life is the agricultural press. The increase in the 



92 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

circulation and excellence of farm papers and magazines 
since rural free delivery was instituted has been quite re- 
markable. As an instrument through which to reach his 
patrons, the teacher cannot find its equal. Originally 
devoted largely to crops and stock and other problems of 
farm production, the agricultural periodicals have lately 
begun to devote much space to rural organization and social 
life. Its great institutions — the church and school — 
are freely discussed, and the columns of all the leading papers 
are open to discussions of vital rural educational problems. 
Consolidation of schools, vitalization of school subjects, 
agricultural club work, rural improvement associations, 
and the like are familiar to the readers of farm journals 
and local weeklies nowadays. Many of the latter, partic- 
ularly, solicit the teachers' assistance in keeping the schools 
before the public. Unfortunately, too many teachers have 
utilized this privilege — if at all — to catalogue mere local 
trivialities and gossip instead of using it to place the real 
problems and needs of the schools before their patrons. 
He is a judicious teacher who makes liberal use of the local 
and state agricultural press to keep the public informed on 
progress in school affairs — both as to needs and wants, 
successes and failures. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

What is meant by cooperation of rural teachers with such agencies as 
are discussed in this chapter ? Does it really pay to take time for work of 
this kind? Explain. 

Show why rural teachers should be members of the grange or similar 
organizations. 

Is there a farmers' club in your school district ? What will you do to 
aid in its work? 

Distinguish between the "home and school improvement association" 
and the "parent-teacher association. " Give the story of one of the former 
as organized in the South. 



OTHER EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS 93 

Give a brief history of the origin and progress of parent-teacher asso- 
ciations. Have you organized your association? 

Are you a scout master or camp fire guardian? Wherein hes the real 
value of these organizations ? 

The boys' and girls' industrial clubs are organized as the most practical 
method of mastering the vital phases of agricultural life and to awaken 
community interest. Explain. 

Tell what the United States Bureau of Education is doing for the rural 
schools. Are you on the permanent mailing list for rural publications? 
If not, send your name to the Editor of the Bureau at once. 

Give a brief sketch of federal and state cooperation in agricultural 
extension service. Give the particulars of the Smith-Lever Act. How 
much federal aid does your state get under this act? 

In what way can you best cooperate with the county agricultural 
agent ? 

Explain the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act. How does it 
encourage teacher- training ? How does it grant aid to vocational 
schools ? 

How is the International Harvester Company promoting a great exten- 
sion service? Which of its charts, folders, and stereopticon slides have 
you used in the school and community ? 

State, briefly, the relation of good reading to deep thinking and, hence, 
to progress in the community. 

Have you overhauled the school library recently? What steps have 
you taken to add new books? 

Tell the story of the Brumbach County Library. Why does the 
county library seem the most satisfactory system for the dissemination 
of good literature? 

What does the ''rural press" include? Do you keep the local papers 
posted on school progress in your district ? Enumerate the rural periodi- 
cals kept on file in your school. 

Special Studies 

"Organization of the Patrons of Husbandry." — Buck's The Granger 
Movement, Chapter II. 

"Some Forms of Extension Service." — Leake's The Means and Methods 
of Agricultural Education, Chapter X. 

"The Brumbach Library," by Saida Brumbach Antrim. Especially 
Chapters XI, XII, and XIII. 



CHAPTER VI 
Preparing Teachers for Rural Leadership 

Significance of the New Leadership. — It is evident from 
what has been said in preceding chapters that the new 
educational leadership demands real men and women who 
have both training and capacity for work. The success 
or failure of the entire movement to reorganize agricultural 
life through school education will rest almost wholly on the 
teachers, who must direct the work. When the Kingdom 
of Prussia lay prostrate before Napoleon after its crushing 
defeat at Jena, in 1804, it was the schoolmen, preachers, 
and poets that came to the rescue and helped to remake 
the state; when Denmark, in 1864, lost to the Prussians 
and Austrians a similar miracle took place. The teachers, 
preachers, and philosophers set to work to remake the 
schools, and then revitalized in turn the nation's entire 
national life. While we as a nation have not suffered from 
disastrous war or similar calamity, we have reason to pause 
and give the problem of rural reorganization most thoughtful 
consideration. 

The demand is for a generation of teachers to go into 
rural communities and remain there and grow into the 
hearts of the people. In this way only can they become 
leaders of rural folk and teach them to help themselves. 
At this juncture the question forces itself to our attention, 
just who are the teachers to whom the nation has intrusted 
the important task of carrying its agricultural transition 

94 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 95 

to a satisfactory issue? What is their preparation? And 
how do they meet the issue ? 

Who the Rural Teachers Are. — The large army of ap- 
proximately 267,000 rural teachers in the schools includes, 
fortunately, some well-prepared, mature men and women, 
able to uphold the reputation of the profession anywhere. 
But their number is too small to influence school practice 



United States.. 
North Atlantic 
North Central, 

Wjestern 

South Atlantic. 
SoxTTH Central . 



'^mmmm^A 



25.7 per cent. 



20.7 



'^^i^^^SM^Zl^j 



13.7 
13.6 



17.7 
18.9 



'^m^fSmZ^S^A 



^g^ss^gg^s^^ 



^4^i^iiZl7iS0^^^^^^Si^A 



VAf^^7/AVXyj^AO^^O^Ayj7/M 



37.2 



43.1 



33.9 

Men teachers In rural communities. 

Total men teachers— urban and rural— according 
to the 1910 census. 

Fig. 9. — Distribution of men teachers by geographical divisions, according to 
the study made by the Bureau of Education. 

to any marked degree. The schools are dominated by 
immature teachers, most of them of limited experience. 
The study of the Efficiency and Preparation of Rural School 
Teachers, referred to in the introductory chapter of the book, 
discloses that 74.3 per cent of all rural teachers are women. 
In the North Atlantic States only 13.7 per cent are men. 
The comparatively large percentage of men — 43.1 — in 
the South Central States alone, saves the average for the 
nation from being much lower than it is. The majority of 
rural teachers will probably always be women, which is in 
itself no calamity. But a complete feminization of the 



96 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

schools would be highly unfortunate, since there is a time 
in the lives of all pupils when it is best for them to come in 
contact with men teachers. The establishment of con- 
solidated graded and high schools, with good housing facili- 
ties, is a remedy which is already making itself felt in some 
sections of the country, as under these conditions it is pos- 
sible for mature men teachers of experience to reestablish 
themselves permanently in the country with their families. 
At the present only i8 per cent of the rural teachers are 
married. 

The average age of the teachers reporting, when beginning 
to teach, is 19.2 years. This would unquestionably have 
been materially reduced in the Survey had all teachers 
reported. In any case, a person of 19 years or less cannot 
have had either the preparation or the experience to direct 
the youth of rural communities to become scientific farm- 
ers and practical farmers' wives. 

The average tenure of the teacher for each school in rural 
United States is a trifle less than two school years of 140 
days each, or considerably less than one calendar year. 
This average is very much less for a majority of the teachers, 
the few permanent, professional teachers alone bringing it 
up close to the two-year level. So long as teachers con- 
tinue to be peripatetics, the best results in community 
leadership cannot be expected. 

As may be seen from the diagram giving the teachers' 
residence, only a very small number actually live in the 
community. It is evident that a teacher who spends only 
six hours each day for five days in the week in the school 
community will be unable to accomplish anything for com- 
munity leadership. His labors are limited by the four walls 
of the schoolroom ; he can neither understand nor sympa- 
thize with outside interests. The teachers who reside 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 97 
(Eaob dot represents 10 or a fraction of 10 teachers.) 





Home pro- 
vided Tjy 
district. 


Boarding 

and lodging 

in the 

district. 


Boarding 
and lodging 
outside the 

district. 


United States 


• • • 

* • • 

• • 


mil 


•• *. • • . 

• • * • • * . *• 

• • » • . • 

• • • • • 




North Atlantic 


• 




• • 
• • 




South Atlantic 


• 


• * • » • • 

' * * % • 


* • • • 

• « 
• • 




SOT'TH flFNTRAT ^ ^^ 


* 


• • • * 
• . *. ♦ • 


• 




North Central 


• 
• 


* * * .* •* *' *. .*' 


• • 




Western. •...••........,■■••.. 


• 
• 


' • • * * r 


» • 





Fig. 10. — This diagram gives some idea of the comparatively small number 
of teacherages in use in rural communities. 

in the community throughout the school week do better, 
though many of them are Hkely to have their sympathies 
and vital interests in the village or city where they spend 
their week ends. On the other hand, the teacher who has 
a permanent home provided by the community finds it 
possible to become a permanent community leader. In 



98 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

the few communities reporting permanent homes, the 
teachers are usually able to project the school into the home 
and draw the home close to the school. Where teachers' 
cottages are provided, these, aside from making the teachers' 
own lives more attractive, naturally become the rallying 
centers for community activities. 

Importance of Thorough Academic Preparation. — The 
new education demands teachers with broad academic 
preparation — men and women who are well read and 
intimate with the modern science that is beginning to enrich 
the course of study and the lives of the people who come' 
within its benign influence. The rural population is suffer- 
ing more to-day from want of this broadening culture, 
founded on modern science, than for the want of ancient 
language arts. Unfortunately, not many rural teachers 
have this desideratum of academic preparation. The 
Bureau of Education finds that 4 per cent of the rural 
teachers have had less than eight years of schooling, i.e., they 
have completed less than the traditional elementary schools. 
In some states there is no academic standard of require- 
ments aside from ability to pass an examination before a 
local county superintendent or other supervising oflicial. 
As a result many half-taught young people, with little or 
no real academic attainments, without the slightest com- 
prehension of the needs of country life, hold places in the 
schools and keep down the standards of efficiency. 

On the other hand, 45 per cent of the teachers' reporting 
are high school graduates and many others have had part 
courses in high schools. This statement would be more 
encouraging were it not known that in an inquiry of this 
sort the better-prepared and successful teachers reply more 
readily than those less well-prepared and less successful. 
On general principles, no teacher should be permitted to 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 99 

teach in the schools who has not completed a high school 
course or its equivalent. Without this preparation the 
teacher cannot have the necessary reserve store of informa- 
tion to draw from as occasion may demand. He is in 
constant danger of getting into ruts ; and his educational 
vision is likely to become narrowed and indistinct. A few 
teachers report complete college courses or academic courses 
in normal schools. This is encouraging as a beginning to 
better things. Soon, it is hoped, the public will begin to 
feel its responsibility as well as opportunity in modern 
school education by encouraging teachers to become more 
thoroughly prepared than now, by paying better salaries 
and in other ways dignifying the profession. 

Scarcity of Professionally Prepared Teachers. — The 
most serious, though not unexpected, disclosure in the 
government study was the low professional status of rural 

United States ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 32.3 

Westebn ____^^^^__ ^^^ 

North Central hIH^HIHIIh ^^'^ 

Atlantic ^^^^^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 34 

South Atlantic ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 39'6 

Central ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 42.9 

^^^^1 Having no professional preparation. 

Fig. II. — Professional preparation of rural teachers. From the study 
made by the Bureau of Education. 

teachers. One- third of all the teachers reporting — and 
these the best of those addressed — have had no professional 
preparation whatever. Under " professional preparation " 
were included not only regular courses in the professional 
schools, but also summer courses and other short courses 
in reputable institutions. Only the briefest and most super- 



lOO THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

ficial institutes and review schools were excluded. Probably 
if complete data were available, one-half of all the teachers 
would be classed as professionally unprepared. More- 
over, the professional education considered here leaves out 
of consideration the specific preparation essential to suc- 
cessful rural life leadership. 

Awakening the Public Conscience. — European schools 
are considered more thorough than ours and pay better 
salaries. They demand high professional preparation, but 
realize their responsibility by paying living salaries to the 
teachers. More than this, the teachers' calling is held in 
the highest popular esteem. While Americans profess to 
do the same, the naked truth is that the nation is too prone 
to judge success by money standards. The average income 
of all public school teachers in the United States was only 
$490 in 1 91 6. Rural teachers received considerably less — 
probably not to exceed $300. This places them in a cate- 
gory with common laborers and below public cab-drivers 
and automobile chauffeurs. 

Under these conditions it is time for the public to realize 
its responsibility to the men and women who are engaged 
in the most important business of the nation. A people 
which will set its house in order by providing thorough 
practical education for industrial organization and effi- 
ciency has the best form of " preparedness " against the 
outside enemy. It is well that thinking men in private 
life and in public organizations of state and nation are al- 
ready seriously at work to awaken public interest in the 
rural schools, and in a more adequate and better rewarded 
teaching-staff. 

National Conferences for Rural Teacher Preparation. — 
A first nation-wide conference of educators interested in a 
better preparation for rural teachers assembled at Chicago 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP loi 

in the fall of 1914, called by the United States Commis- 
sioner of Education. Delegates were present from all 
sections of the country, representing every kind of secondary 
and higher educational institution which can be adapted 
to the preparation of rural teachers. These leaders, after 
three days of continued sessions, formulated a set of clear- 
cut resolutions urging state departments and state boards of 
education, normal schools, colleges, and universities, agricul- 
tural colleges, county normal schools, and high school teacher- 
training departments and classes to do everything consistent 
with their organization to unite in offering facilities for 
training rural teachers — of whom 95,000 are needed annually 
to fill the ranks of those who abandon the profession. 

A second conference has recently closed at Nashville 
(October, 191 5), which was of even more far-reaching in- 
fluence, in that it adopted a declaration of principles as the 
working constitution of the body. This document has 
been circulated throughout the country. It outlines in 
detail what may rightly be expected of the different teacher- 
training bodies represented. The most encouraging fea- 
ture of these conferences was the earnestness with which 
state superintendents of schools, presidents of normal schools, 
professors of teachers' colleges, and others labored together 
to reach practicable results. 

The recommendations of the two conferences are largely 
embodied in the discussions in the following paragraphs on 
what is being done by the schools for teacher-training, and 
what they should do. 

State Normal Schools Reorganizing Their Work to Meet 
the New Demands. — The normal schools should, theo- 
retically at least, be able to prepare teachers for all kinds 
of schools. Practically, however, they have not always 
been able to do so. The demand for trained teachers in the 



I02 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

city and village schools has, in most sections of the country, 
been so great as to absorb all the energies of the schools, 
leaving little or no time to consider the needs of rural com- 
munities. Certain geographical sections of the country, 
notably the North Atlantic division, have now little genuine 
agricultural life. Here, naturally enough, the normal 
schools do not devote much of their time to rural teachers. 
In such agricultural sections as the North Central and 
South Central divisions, on the other hand, rural teachers 
are in the majority. Now that educational ideals are 
undergoing great changes in these sections of the country, 
it is reasonable to expect that the normal schools will be 
prompt to respond to the new needs. These schools have 
always been ready to adapt themselves to prevailing con- 
ditions. In a sense they are so near to public thought all 
the time as to be '' more nearly to-day an actual exponent 
of public sentiment than any other public institution of 
equivalent magnitude." The best evidence of this is that 
the normal schools situated in the agricultural sections of 
the country are now straining every energy to be of greatest 
assistance in rural teacher preparation. 

Importance of Special Departments for the Preparation 
of Rural Teachers. — Normal school presidents and other 
leaders in the schools have begun to see clearly the need 
of a specialized preparation for rural teaching. The first 
step in answer to the new demands is usually to offer a 
special course for students desiring it. The class work of 
the rural courses is often in charge of the regular instructors 
of the professional department in the school who have had 
little particular preparation for rural-life phases of educa- 
tional work ; consequently, the special courses are not 
always satisfactory in results and not much sought after 
by the students of the school. 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 103 

More satisfactory results are apparent where the normal 
schools have organized distinct departments in this field. 
The plan usually followed is to place a carefully prepared 
rural school expert at the head of the department. Other 
assistants are added from time to time as the development 
of the department may require. The plan of the organiza- 
tion is to group the school subjects around a study of the 
problems of rural life, including rural sociology and rural 
economics. Much emphasis is placed on rural school 
methods of teaching and rural school management. Pref- 
erably, there is a model rural school connected with the 
department and under its direction. The plan is, further, 
for the department to extend its services to the country 
communities which receive the teacher product of the 
school. 

The Rural-School Department in the Missouri State 
Normal School at Kirksville, an Illustration of This Develop- 
ment. — Well-organized rural-school departments are now 
to be found in sixty or more leading normal schools. Among 
the oldest and best-known are Kalamazoo, Michigan ; 
Normal, Illinois ; Cheney, Washington ; Lewiston, Idaho ; 
Natchitoches, Louisiana ; Kearney, Nebraska, and Kirks- 
ville, Missouri. In the latter school a professor of rural 
education, who is well versed in rural-life conditions, de- 
votes all his time to the work of the department. He has 
personal charge of the more important classes and supervises 
the activities of the model school and the field work. The 
latter is in immediate charge of a school-extension expert 
who carries the activities of the department into the country 
communities through lecture courses and informal meetings 
with the patrons. Possibly his most important work is to 
aid beginning teachers to become adjusted to their new en- 
vironment and to select the right teacher for the right place. 



I04 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The model rural school, which is only " a stone's throw " 
from the rural department classrooms, is constantly in use 
as a practice school by the student teachers and also as a 
place where model lessons of all kinds are studied. It is 
also used as a model of the best and latest in rural school 
architecture. 

The study course in this and similar rural-school depart- 
ments emphasizes, (i) the vital problems in rural life — 
rural sociology and farm economics, (2) the special methods 
and management of rural schools, (3) the new subjects 
necessary in this age of commercial agriculture — nature 
study-agriculture, home economics, handwork, school music, 
school and personal hygiene, and supervised play, and the 
revitalization of the literary subjects by eliminating the 
" dead timber " and giving them a direct application to 
ever3^day life. (See Part III, Chapter VII.) 

Teachers who entered upon their occupation before these 
special departments were established should, if possible, 
return to them, if only for a summer term, to gain new 
inspiration and direction. Several of the schools are also 
offering correspondence courses and extension courses in 
rural school organization and other important subjects. 

Place of the Rural Model School and the Rural Practice 
School. — Probably forty-five normal schools have estab- 
lished model rural schools on or near the normal school 
premises, and about an equal number of schools utilize 
regular rural schools of the vicinity as practice schools for 
the student teachers in the training classes. 

Educators are somewhat divided in their opinion as to 
which of the two schools is the more effective in practice. 
Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The model 
school conducted on the campus of the normal school, say 
some, can generally be counted on to exert a greater in- 




Practical Features of Rural-Teacher Training 



The upper illustration shows teachers at work making school gardens at the Purdue 
University Summer School ; the lower is a class in home economics at the annual 
Teachers' Institute, Santa Fe County, New Mexico. 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 105 

fluence with the student teachers, because it is a part of 
their daily working laboratory. The students become in- 
timate with its architectural advantages through daily con- 
tact, and will later strive to duplicate these in their own 
schools. In a similar way the teachers save time and energy 
by being able to attend frequent model-lesson periods at 
the school and to do their practice teaching without going 
into the country. On the other hand, the advocates of 
the rural practice school insist that rural teaching can best 
be done in the open country, where the right environment 
for such teaching can only be found. There is much force 
in this, and to overcome it the advocates of the model 
schools located in town convey the pupils of the schools 
from the country and provide them with an environment 
as much as possible like that of the open country. 

Several of the normal schools which adhere to the prac- 
tice school of the open country, but which have come to 
the conclusion that the energy and time expended in coming 
and going to and from the schools is out of proportion to 
the good gained, have reorganized their plans in such a 
manner that they now send groups of students, comprising 
four or six to the group, under a competent critic teacher, 
to the rural practice schools, where they spend several 
weeks at a time doing practice work and assisting in com- 
munity center work. 

The Normal Schools and Preparation of Teachers in 
Agriculture. — Many states have recently made the study 
of agriculture in the public schools compulsory, and most 
of them require teachers of rural and village schools to pass 
an examination in this subject before granting certificates 
to teach. Much of the early agriculture teaching has, for 
good reasons, been poor and limited to textbook work. 
This was because the teacher had had little opportunity to 



io6 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

make proper preparation, and the schools offering such 
courses to teachers were Hmited in their equipment. One 
of the most remarkable adaptations to new needs in the 
normal schools is seen in the organization of strong depart- 
ments in agriculture and household economics ; sixty- three 
normal schools have reported distinct courses for teachers 
in agriculture, which are open as well to the rural teachers- 
in-training. In most of the schools the departments are 
in charge of experts with liberal agricultural college train- 
ing. The departments have, as a rule, sufficiently large, 
outdoor laboratories at their disposal — school farms, ex- 
perimental plats, and greenhouses. A few of the schools 
are not equipped with farms, but all are able to supply some 
outdoor work. These courses vary from one to four years 
in length and include all the subjects essential to instruc- 
tion in educational agriculture. 

Rural Teacher Preparation in Agricultural Colleges. — 
Nearly all reputable agricultural colleges have recently 
established divisions of agricultural education to meet the 
demand for teachers in the new industrial subjects. The 
new chairs aim primarily to prepare teachers of agriculture 
and other industrial subjects for secondary and higher 
schools, such as high schools, normal schools, and other 
agricultural colleges, as also for the new consolidated rural 
schools. The product of long-course teachers has not yet 
been sufficiently large to reach many of the smaller rural 
schools. It is to meet in some measure the demands for 
the latter that summer school courses of a large variety are 
offered. These are proving of great value to rural and 
village teachers. Only a few of the agricultural colleges — 
and these mainly in the southern states — have yet seen 
their way clear to organize special departments or courses 
for general rural teachers. The Nashville Conference sets 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 107 

forth in its declaration of principles the urgent need for 
larger numbers of rural teachers trained in the wholesome 
agricultural college atmosphere. This is not now a question 
as to the wisdom of invading a school organized primarily 
to promote scientific farming ; but one of expediency, since 
experience has taught that many of the strongest of the broad- 
visioned rural teachers come from the agricultural colleges. 

Rural Teacher-Training in Secondary Schools. — There 
has been considerable difference of opinion among educators 
as to the wisdom of preparing rural teachers in academic 
institutions of secondary rank. Many have feared that 
this might result in lower standards of academic work, while 
others have insisted that such teacher preparation would 
add dignity and a new sense of responsibility to the tasks 
of the secondary schools. The whole matter, however, is 
not so much a question of wisdom as it is one of expediency 
when one recalls that an army of close to 95,000 recruits go 
into the rural schools each year. Some educators, again, 
have hoped that this " invasion " of the secondary schools 
may be temporary only, while others who have made a 
careful study of it are satisfied that, if anything, it strength- 
ens the secondary school in its academic work and ought 
to be made permanent. 

Rural teacher-training in secondary schools is not an 
innovation, having been operative in private academies in 
New York State since 1834. By legislative enactment of 
that year eight academies were established to prepare 
common school teachers. In these academies can be seen 
the beginnings of the present teacher- training classes in 
New York. Eventually they became public high schools, 
retaining their early granted normal school privileges. The 
growth in secondary school teacher- training has been rapid 
during the last few years. At the present time this kind of 



io8 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

work in secondary schools is carried on in twenty-one dif- 
ferent states ; this includes the so-called county training 
schools and teacher- training departments in connection 
with high schools and teacher- training as a part of regular 
high school courses. Wisconsin is the only state in the 
group that has genuine county training schools in every 
respect separate from the public high schools. New York, 
Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, and Ohio have what are 
called county training schools, or classes or separate depart- 
ments more or less closely connected with the public high 
schools and using public school buildings and equipment 
for their work. Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mis- 
souri, Nebraska, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin 
have training classes as a part of the ordinary high school 
courses, leaving all except the professional work in charge 
of the regular high school instructors. Maine offers teacher- 
training in its accredited academies ; North Carolina and 
North Dakota have similar courses in a number of high 
schools, although there is no legal enactment directly 
authorizing their organization. Finally, Oklahoma, West 
Virginia, and Florida have recently passed laws to organize 
teacher- training departments in high schools which went 
into effect in the fall of 191 5. 

The total number of schools in the twenty-one states 
preparing teachers for rural communities through secondary 
institutions is 11 19, with an attendance of about 25,000, 
graduating, in 191 5, 11,088 students. In several states, 
notably in the Middle West, the work has taken such strong 
hold on the states that within three or four years all rural 
teachers should be in possession of such academic and 
professional instruction as is offered in the first-class high 
schools of their states. This will be fraught with greatest 
consequences in rural communities. 



PREPARING- TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 109 

The Wisconsin County Training Schools. — This state 
has the only true county training schools, i.e., schools 
which are in every respect distinct and separate. They 
are organized under separate boards of education and have 
their own instructors specifically prepared for this kind of 
work who devote their whole time to the preparation of 
this kind of teachers. Twenty-eight county training 
schools have been established in as many counties. At 
the present time the schools receive state aid depending 
somewhat on their organization and number of teachers. 
Those with the smallest corps of teachers receive a maxi- 
mum of $3000 from the state annually, those with the 
larger staff, $3500 a year. One thousand four hundred and 
thirteen teachers-in-training were enrolled in 19 14, seventy- 
seven per cent being young men and women country bred 
and born. They were, upon the whole, a sturdy lot of 
young men and women, used to home responsibilities and 
work, many of them making their own way in the world. 
Of the total enrollment for 191 2, three-fourths of the students 
were reported as having distinct home responsibilities, and 
one- fourth were obliged to work their way through school. 

Teacher-Training in High Schools. — A majority of the 
high schools in which teacher- training is given as part of 
the regular course require four years of work for graduation, 
leaving most of the professional work for the last year, when 
these subjects are taken in lieu of other academic subjects. 
The training classes in Michigan accept students of sopho- 
more rank, although a majority of those who apply for 
admission are four-year graduates, holding them only for one 
year which is devoted to the study of professional subjects 
and practice school work. Under the Minnesota system, 
while usually the matriculants are of senior rank, it has been 
possible to enter the training class at any time above sopho- 



no THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

more rank. This system, however, has recently been 
strengthened so that within a year no one will be able to get a 
training certificate from the Minnesota schools who has not 
completed the entire four-year course of the state high schools. 
Nevada and Ohio have perhaps the most satisfactory re- 
quirements. In Nevada and almost entirely so in Ohio, 
while high school property is used for housing purposes, 
the county training school is virtually a separate institution 
under county regulations, accepting as students in the 
main only graduates from the local four-year high schools 
and retaining them in a one-year post-graduate profes- 
sional course. The state of New York has recently modified 
its system so that hereafter in this state also the training 
class will constitute a graduate fifth year. The same is 
true of the new Oklahoma training classes. 

It is not the purpose of these pages to go into the details 
of high school teacher preparation in the several states 
where this work is done. It is sufiftcient to state that where 
the system has become well-established the new kind of 
teachers, while their academic standards are still generally 
lower than they ought to be, are able to accomplish much 
more than their untrained predecessors, and many find that 
they are doing just as good work as are the graduates from 
some normal schools, many of them, indeed, doing better 
work than the regular course graduates from the latter 
institutions. This is due chiefly to the fact that the county 
and high school trained teachers are more apt to get the 
correct point of view as to the needs of rural life and rural 
pupils. Whether this kind of training shall continue a 
temporary expedient or become a permanent and lasting 
part of the professional training schools of our country, the 
future alone can say, although certainly this must depend 
largely on the future ability of normal schools, agricultural 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP iii 

colleges, and other institutions to fill the demand for well- 
trained rural teachers. 

Courses for Rural Teachers and Other Leaders in Cer- 
tain Schools of Education. — The Nashville Conference 
urged in its declaration of principles that the college for 
teachers should embrace in its organization a school or 
division to train principals and special teachers for rural 
high schools, county superintendents of education, state 
and county rural school supervisors, directors of extension 
work for rural communities in agriculture and home econom- 
ics, and especially teachers of rural education and allied 
subjects in normal schools and county training schools. 
The division should include, in addition, an extension serv- 
ice to keep the members of its faculty in constant touch 
with the real problems of the rural community and to bring 
assistance to the teachers in the field. The courses offered 
in the school of rural life in the teachers' college should in- 
clude agriculture, rural sociology, rural economics, rural 
industrial arts, rural sanitation, and rural recreation. 
This division of the college for teachers should include in 
its facilities, also, one or more experimental and observa- 
tional rural schools to be used by the faculty and students 
for purposes of research as well as for observation and 
practice. 

It is of interest to energetic young teachers to know that . 
a number of the best-known teachers' colleges in the country 
have already extended facilities for advanced work in all 
the leadership studies included above. It is possible now 
for teachers to spend a summer quarter at Teachers College, 
Columbia University, or a year in graduate work at George 
Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee, and 
in long and short courses at many other schools of similar 
organization, under the direction of rural experts gathered 



112 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

from every part of the nation. In this way will the power 
of leadership grow. 

Improving Teachers in Service. — The task of redirecting 
the rural schools will depend largely on the teachers who are 
now in the profession. When one speaks of a new kind of 
teachers, it is not the intention to discard the teachers now 
at work, but rather to help them to redirect their efforts 
to better advantage by assisting them through all possible 
means to become more efficient in their rural leadership 
than they now are. There are many agencies through which 
teachers are able to grow in community leadership even if 
they cannot attend professional schools during the regular 
school year. Among these, summer schools organized in 
strong professional institutions naturally come first. Noth- 
ing further need be said about these schools at the present 
time. Other well-known agencies are annual teachers* 
institutes, national, state, and local teachers' meetings, and 
teachers' reading circles. These are all so well-known that 
it is unnecessary to discuss them in detail. It has long 
been felt that more effective assistance should be given 
teachers in service to encourage them in their community 
leadership work. Several interesting and effective schemes 
of organization to this end are under way in different sec- 
tions of the country. 

The Iowa Plan of Extension Service for Rural Teachers. 
— An effective plan of such state-wide extension service 
for rural teachers has been in operation in Iowa for several 
years under the direction of Iowa State Teachers' College 
at Cedar Falls. The preliminary work of this service was 
begun in 19 13 when several counties were organized with 
teachers' study centers to demonstrate the feasibility of 
this plan as a means to assist teachers at work in the rural 
schools. The study centers were at first voluntary classes 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 113 

of rural and other teachers who met on Saturdays and gave 
the entire day to study. 

This work, which began as an experiment, was continued 
at a very large number of centers during the next two years. 
By 1 91 6 practically every county in the state was included, 
with fully five thousand teachers organized for extension 
work of this kind. The last General Assembly of the state, 
seeing the great possibilities of the new extension work, 
made a large appropriation to be expended annually for its 
further promotion. The extension service has been placed 
in charge of a " Director of Extension Service," who, al- 
though a member of the Teachers' College faculty, devotes 
at least one-half of his time to the extension service work. 
An able corps of extension instructors is chosen for work 
under the personal direction of this director. 

An important phase of the Iowa system is its demon- 
stration schools, conducted and supervised by the rural 
education department of the Teachers College. These 
demonstration schools are twenty in number, all of them 
typical rural schools in which the young teachers-in-training 
from the Normal School have excellent opportunities for 
practice teaching and observation work. These demon- 
stration schools form excellent study centers for other 
teachers, to whom they are always open. 

The Iowa extension service is, therefore, twofold in 
nature. It carries the Normal School direct to the teachers 
who are unable to do residence work, and it gives the 
teachers-in- training opportunities for real practice work 
in an ideal rural environment. 

The National Rural Teachers' Reading Circle. — An- 
other medium through which rural teachers may receive 
assistance while in service is the National Rural Teachers' 
Reading Circle, mentioned in the preceding chapter. The 



114 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

plan of organization was first broached at the National 
Education Association meeting in St. Paul in 1914. The 
final plans have recently been put into operation and 
teachers throughout the country have been invited to its 
membership. More than three-fourths of the states are 
already enrolled in the membership of the Reading Circle. 
The work is entirely without cost to the rnembers, except for 
the purchase of books. There is no restriction as to who 
may become members. The books read in the study course 
for the years 1915-1917 are classified under five heads as 
non-professional books for cultural value, educational 
classics, general principles and methods of education, rural 
education, and rural life problems. The work is organized 
as a two-year course, although it may be completed by the 
industrious teacher in a shorter time. 

To those who give satisfactory evidence of having read 
not less than five books from the general culture list, and 
not less than three from the other lists — seventeen books 
in all — within two years from the time of registering will 
be awarded a National Rural Teachers' Reading Circle 
certificate signed by the United States Commissioner of 
Education and the chief school ofificial in the state in which 
the reader lives at the time when the course is completed. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

State all the reasons you can think of why so few teachers remain 
permanently in rural schools. 

Suggest three or four remedies which would attract well-prepared 
teachers to rural school leadership. 

Do you reside in the school district seven days in the week ? If not, 
where do you spend your week-ends? Are you able to do anything for 
your school community under such conditions? 

Can you see any relation between low public estimation of teaching 
as a profession and teacher preparation? 



PREPARING TEACHERS FOR RURAL LEADERSHIP 115 

What were the Chicago and Nashville Conferences on Rural Teacher 
Training ? 

Show the importance of special rural school departments in normal 
schools. 

What is meant by rural model schools, or rural practice schools? 

Why do you, consider the agricultural college as having an ideal atmos- 
phere for preparing rural teachers and other leaders ? 

Distinguish carefully between county training schools and training 
departments in high schools. Wherein does the Wisconsin county train- 
ing school show its advantage ? Its disadvantage ? 

Enumerate some leading professional schools not far from home which 
offer good courses in rural school work, in their summer sessions. Study 
their announcements. 

Why is the demand for teachers made on ''all schools which are at all 
adapted to this end"? 

What is the Iowa plan of extension work and practice teaching ? 

Are you a member of the National Rural Teachers' Reading Circle? 
If not, address the U. S. Bureau of Education for their printed materials 
on this subject. 

Special Studies 

"Teacher and Community." — Betts and Hall's Better Rural Schools, 
Ch. X. 

"Preparation of Teachers to Teach Agriculture." — ^vick.er^s Agricul- 
tural Education for Teachers, Chs. V and VII. 

"The Rural School Teacher — His Training." — Foght's American 
Rural School, Ch. V. 

Prepare a theme on rural teacher-training based on one or all of the 
following publications of the U. S. Bureau of Education: Bulletin 1913, 
No. 2, Training Courses for Rural Teachers; 1914, No. 49, Efficiency and 
Preparation of Rural School Teachers; 191 7, Preparation of Rural 
Teachers in County Training Schools and High Schools. (In preparation.) 



PART II 

THE TEACHER AS ORGANIZER AND 
ADMINISTRATOR 



CHAPTER I 

Rural School Organization and Administration 

Importance of Understanding the Different Systems of 
School Organization. — It would be difficult to master the 
rural school problem in its entirety without having a clear 
understanding of the typical systems of school organiza- 
tion used in the different states. Nearly every phase of 
school reorganization is bound up in some way with the 
geographical unit utilized as the basis for school main- 
tenance, supervision, and general administration. If the 
unit of organization is very small, it becomes impracticable 
for school taxation and supervision ; if too large, its super- 
vision is difficult and generally ineffective. The growth 
in school education for entire sections of the country has 
been retarded because of bad school organization, while 
other sections, less fortunately situated in other ways, have 
been able to make exceptional progress in school reorgani- 
zation because favored by modern laws on this subject. 

The present chapter is devoted to a brief discussion of 
those phases of school organization only that are of greatest 
importance to rural teachers at this time. For more com- 
plete statements, readers are referred to the special studies 
at the close of the chapter. 

Brief History of School Organization. — School organi- 
zation in the United States has developed from the needs 
of community life in the different sections of the country. 
In pioneer days school organization was wholly a community 

iig 



I20 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

enterprise, each group of families organizing and supporting 
its own school as best it could. From these often far- 
separated group centers, school organization began as an 
outward development, coinciding, as a rule, ultimately, 
with the geographical unit established for civil adminis- 
tration. Historically, this has given the country three 
distinct types of school organization — district, town 
(township), and county. 

The district was the original pioneer organization and 
generally preceded school legislation. It began as a neces- 
sity on the edge of the New England wilderness long 
ago, and was later continued for much the same reasons 
in the westward march into the interior of the continent. 
The town (township) system for school purposes also 
originated in New England and prevailed from the very 
beginning in all organized towns. The district organiza- 
tion, it will be understood, came into existence where there 
was no town organization for civil purposes. County 
organization originated in the South. Here plantation 
life prevailed, agricultural areas were large, with a widely 
scattered population and little village life. This called for 
a larger unit of organization for civil purposes, which was 
supplied in the old English county. The latter also be- 
came the unit for school purposes. 

As the nation expanded westward the local district unit 
has kept well in the vanguard of civilization, becoming 
permanently established in many states of the Middle 
West and in nearly all of the West. The compact township 
organization eventually drove the district system out of 
New England and gave several of the Middle Western 
States a marked bias for this organization. Meanwhile, 
south of the Mason-Dixon line, county systems of organ- 
ization prevailed. In the Middle West, where the town- 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 121 




122 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

ship and county are both used in civil administration, there 
is a strong movement under way at this time to supplant 
the pioneer district organization with one or the other of 
township or county unit, with the latter generally in the 
ascendency. 

Decline of the District Unit. — The term school "dis- 
trict " is used in the present discussion to mean a small 
geographical area served by a single school, with occasionally 
two or more schools, under one local board of education. 
This board has general charge of the local school, including 
care of the school premises, choice of teacher, the right to 
fix the teacher's salary, and establishment of the policy 
which shall govern the school's work. The board is ame- 
nable to the annual school meeting which elects its member- 
ship, votes the taxes, — except in states without local 
taxation, — determines the length of the school year, etc. 

The small district, which has been considered more demo- 
cratic than the other forms, is beginning to show marks of 
decline in every section of the country, for the obvious 
reason that it was organized as a pioneer system when it 
was the only feasible plan. But with the passing of pioneer 
conditions and the development of modern industrial life, 
a larger and more centrally controlled system of organ- 
ization seems desirable. 

Reasons for the Decline. — Massachusetts was the first 
state to legalize the district unit, and was likewise the first 
to abolish it. This was in 1882. The other New England 
states soon followed suit and changed to the larger town 
(township) system. The reason for the change in New 
England is simple. The great westward agricultural ex- 
pansion had led to a general disintegration of the rural 
population, which was intensified by the influx of some of 
those who remained to the growing factory towns. This 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 



123 



left many of the one-time populous districts all but bereft 
of population and too impoverished to support long-term 
schools under well-paid teachers, hence the union of all 
the small districts in a town system. 



COLORADO RURAL SCHOOLS. 

1725 Third Class Districts. 
An Eight Year Survey 1906-1913 Inclusive. 
Averag-e Enrollment. 
64,385 




i- Did Not 
Crraduate. 



kiki 



Gr9.<iusLted. 



Fig. 13. — A recent survey of all the rural (third class) schools in Colorado, done under 
the direction of the Colorado Agricultural College, has disclosed that very few children com- 
plete the elementary school course in the one-room school of the small district. 



124 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Westward, the reasons for the present discontent with 
the district unit is explainable in the knowledge that it has 
become an almost insurmountable obstacle to modern 
school reorganization. School consolidation and the estab- 
lishment of rural high schools have proved exceedingly 
difficult where local boards and district lines have to be 
considered. Then, local jealousy, parsimony, and individ- 
ual indifference for school affairs have contributed their 
share to the opposition that is now prevalent. 

The New England Town System. — The town system of 
schools as it prevails in New England and a few of the states 
westward is a great forward step in school organization. 
In the New England States it is the most practicable sys- 
tem possible, as its unit of organization coincides with the 
long-established town for civil administration. Indeed, in 
Massachusetts, the Act of 1647 had declared the town the 
basis of all school organization ; but the early volunteer 
district system worked so admirably in practice that it 
received full legal sanction under the Act of 1789. What 
was true of Massachusetts held good for the other New 
England states as well. 

But in time the great transition in our rural life got under 
way and with it the district system in New England began 
to decline. People now began to understand what the 
great educator, Horace Mann, had meant when he said 
that the Act of 1789 was " the most unfortunate law on the 
subject of common schools ever enacted in this state " — 
Massachusetts. A bitter struggle ensued between the 
champions of the two systems — reminding one much of 
the contests at the present time being waged in the Middle 
West between the supporters of the district unit and the 
larger county unit — which ended, in Massachusetts, in 
1882 with the enactment of a new law supplanting the 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 125 



LAS ANIMAS COUNTY 
Third Class Districts that had No Eighth Grade Graduates 
Iti Ei^ht Years (1906-1913) Showing Census of Dists. 




149 



UU* 



1913 = 

School Census. 



»I39,5I8 

The5e 4/ Districts paid out this 

enormous sum and not a. child 
finished the S£t Gra,tie. 



Averajge Census 



Fig. 14. — A graphic argument for larger and more effective units of school 
organization — from the Colorado Survey. 

district system with town organization for all the schools. 
One after another the rest of the states in the group fol- 
lowed suit and changed to the town system. 



126 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Under the New England town system of school organiza- 
tion there are, with a few exceptions in New Hampshire 
and Vermont, no separate districts. The school affairs 
of each town are under control of a single board or town 
school committee. This includes the management of the 
village and city schools which lie within the town as well 
as the open country schools. For supervisory purposes 
only, two or more of the less thickly settled towns may be 
united. In such a case the school committees of the towns 
uniting, engage a supervisor for the new '' union district," 
as it is called. The legal voters of each town make all 
appropriations for school purposes. The taxes are ex- 
pended by the town school committee for all the schools 
of the town according to need. Old district boundaries 
are retained for convenience of regulating attendance, but 
for no other purpose. The school committee may construct 
new schools and close existing schools, and assign children 
from one building to another without consulting the town 
meeting. 

The advantages of the town system over the old district 
system may be stated as follows : It offers an equality of 
educational opportunities to all the children of the town, 
as the taxes are used to support all the schools alike. Weak 
schools can be closed without let or hindrance. School 
consolidation has been facilitated. Closer professional 
supervision has supplanted the occasional visits made by 
the old school committee. Special supervisors of music 
and art, and, more particularly, of the new industrial sub- 
jects, have begun to revitalize the school subjects, even in 
the remotest schools. Thus systematic organization of 
the educational affairs in every New England town is sup- 
planting the slipshod, unprofessional system of small district 
schools. 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 127 

Township Organization in the Middle West. — Township 

organization for school purposes prevails likewise in New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, in all but four counties in 
North Dakota, and in parts of Michigan and Iowa. Ohio 
was until recently organized on a pure township basis. 
This has been supplanted with a semi-county system of 
great possibilities. Township organization is also per- 
missive in a number of other Middle Western states, al- 
though no advantage has been taken of the law. Any 
change that may hereafter come in school unit reorganiza- 
tion in the Middle West will unquestionably be from the 
district to the county unit. 

This township organization, like the New England town, 
is directed by a single board of education elected by the 
voters of the entire township. All the schools within the 
township are under the direct management of the board, 
with the exception of those in incorporated villages and 
cities. The board varies in size in the different states 
from three to nine members, elected for a term of years. 
Indiana is a marked exception to this rule. Here a single 
township trustee, elected for four years, has control of all 
important educational matters, such as establishing schools, 
erecting buildings, and employing teachers. Besides the 
township trustee, Indiana has a director in charge of each 
schoolhouse and the area from which it draws its patronage. 
But, aside from looking after the upkeep of the school, he 
has little authority of any kind. 

The township organization in the Middle West is usually 
considered more satisfactory than the smaller district of 
other states. It does much to equalize educational oppor- 
tunities, since the richer parts of the township are taxed 
to aid the less favored parts. It facilitates consolidation 
of schools and organization of township high schools, and 



128 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

in many other ways makes modern organization easy to 
attain. This may be seen in the comparative ease with 
which Indiana has organized nearly seven hundred consoli- 
dated graded and high schools. Or, to take North Dakota 
as another example : here the four rich counties bordering 
on Minnesota have accomplished little for consolidation 
of schools, because they are organized on the district sys- 
tem ; but the other forty-five, although newer and of less 
wealth, have organized over three hundred such schools, 
because they are under the township system. 

But even township form of organization will probably 
pass away, in time, in most states outside of New England. 
It is self-evident that any unit of organization for school 
purposes succeeds best if it coincides with the geographical 
unit utilized in civil administration. This is true of the 
New England towns and of most southern counties. For 
the rest of the country, the county predominates in civil 
administration. This would, therefore, probably be more 
satisfactory than either the district or township as the unit 
for school organization. Indeed, there is much sentiment 
at the present in favor of such a change in many states. 
Ohio, by way of illustration, has already broken away from 
the township organization and has adopted a modified 
county system. 

History of the County System. — Nineteen states are 
organized wholly or in part on the county unit basis for 
school administration. Of these, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, 
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
and Utah may be classed as of the pure county type, i.e., 
in which practically the entire management of the schools 
rests with the county board of education. Arizona, California, 
Delaware, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, 
Texas, Virginia, and Washington belong to the mixed or semi- 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 129 

county type, in which the authority is divided between 
the county board and either township or local district boards. 

In some places in the Middle West opponents of the 
county unit find it popular to point to the Southern States 
which are organized on the county plan as an argument 
against this form of organization. " These states," they 
aver, " are behind other sections of the country in school 
matters, and of course their organization must be to blame." 
In all fairness, no section of the country is more keenly alert 
to educational progress to-day than is the South. Es- 
pecially is it true when we recall that public school systems 
in the South are practically coeval with the reconstruction 
period, and that the available resources of the South are 
small in comparison with those of the North and West. 

The truth is, the really remarkable progress in consolida- 
tion of schools, in the establishment of rural high schools 
and the introduction of industrial work now going on in 
the South, could never have been accomplished to such a 
satisfactory degree had it not been for county organization. 
This argument, therefore, redounds to the favor of the 
county unit. 

The Louisiana System, an Illustration of the Pure County 
Type. — The state is divided into sixty-five parishes (simi- 
lar to counties). Each of these is the basis of school ad- 
ministration. A board of education, consisting of one 
member elected in each police ward, chosen for a term of six 
years, directs all the educational affairs of the parish. The 
parish board elects a professional supervisor (superin- 
tendent) who acts as executive officer of the board. For 
this purpose candidates are not limited to the parish, as 
the best available person is generally selected. 

The parish supervisors nominate the teachers that are 
needed, and these selections are usually ratified by the 



I30 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

boards without question, which then hold the supervisors 
responsible for the teachers' conduct. All the schools of 
the parish are administered by the board, who have the 
right to discontinue schools, construct new schoolhouses, 
consolidate schools, establish rural high schools, etc., when 
and where the welfare of the parish demand. 

For tax purposes the parish is usually the unit. Local 
taxes are levied for school improvements or new buildings. 
Aside from these taxes school support comes from a state 
mill tax. Under these conditions educational advantages 
are fairly equalized, giving all rural children a square deal, 
and the old waste of funds through unnecessary duplication 
of school plants and equipment is entirely overcome. 

The New Ohio Plan. — This state has recently made a com- 
plete revision of the state school code of such a sweeping 
nature that ''it is doubtful," says Doctor P. P. Claxton, 
United States Commissioner of Education, " if there has 
ever been more constructive and progressive school legis- 
lation enacted by a single session of the legislature in any 
state within the last half century." The new code gives 
the state a well-planned county system that is an admirable 
compromise between the small district and the most radical 
county system. Because of its direct bearing upon similar 
reorganization proposed in other states, space is taken in 
the following paragraphs for the chief points of interest in 
the Ohio plan. 

Old District Boards mid Boundaries Retained. — The 
old-time Ohio special and township districts have been 
kept in the new organization under the name of " rural 
districts." The local boards have been permitted to re- 
tain, so far as compatible with best school results, the 
powers and duties they held under the old law. Thus, 
for example, the local boards still elect their own teachers 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 131 

and select their own course of study and textbooks. All of 
this, however, is done under restrictions explained below. 

The presidents of the local boards of education of the 
rural and village districts elect a county board of education 
composed of five members who supervise and control the 
entire county school district, by which is meant all of the 
civil county exclusive of the territory embraced in city 
school districts and certain village districts which may, by 
vote, be exempted. 

Powers and Duties of the County Board of Education. — 
The members of the county board of education are elected 
for a period of five years. Their first duty is to choose a 
professional county superintendent who is the board's ex- 
ecutive official. The board has the power to transfer ter- 
ritory from one school district to another so that all territory 
that is part of a natural community can be joined into one 
school district. The county board of education must also 
divide the county into districts for the purposes of super- 
vision. TJiese supervisory districts may consist of one, 
two, or more school districts, each to have its own district 
superintendent, to be recommended by the county super- 
intendent, although he is elected by the local school boards 
in his own supervision district. 

The county board of education in Ohio is a board of dele- 
gate power as it really delegates most of its supervisory and 
other powers to the county superintendent and district 
superintendents, who are chosen under the plan explained 
above. 

The Important Place of the County Superintendent. — 
The new professional superintendent is the executive official 
of the county board of education. He, more than anybody 
else, directs the school affairs of the county. First of all, 
he recommends the district superintendents for all the super- 



132 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

vision districts of the county, for whose success or failure 
he is, in a sense, responsible, as the authorized head of the 
county school system. 

Another very important duty of the new superintendent 
is to oversee the work of training rural and village teachers 
in the newly established county training schools. Under 
the law, each Ohio county must have not less than one nor 
more than three training school courses in connection with 
first grade high schools. The county superintendent super- 
vises training of teachers in the training courses given in 
his county ; he is also expected to teach a number of class- 
room periods throughout the year. 

District Supervision. — The new district superintendents 
are expected to provide the close, professional supervision 
that is commonly lacking in rural schools. Under the law, 
the supervisors are to devote at least three-fourths of their 
time to classroom supervision. If wisely chosen, they can 
work remarkable changes in the schools. 

Origin and Function of School Boards. — The average 
New England " school committee " of the early day com- 
prised the local minister, the squire, and several other 
prominent laymen. They were charged with the selection 
and examination of teachers, the visitation and inspection 
of schools, the enforcement of discipline, and numerous 
other duties. Similar boards of education came into ex- 
istence in other states. They were from the leading men 
of the community, who took commendable pride in seeing 
that the schoolmaster earned his salary and " kept his 
pupils in paths of righteousness and godliness." Their 
tasks were both of an administrative and a supervisory 
nature. In time, as population increased, these duties 
became multiplied and complex, requiring more time than 
an unsalaried committee would care to give the work. As 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 133 

a result, paid specialists came into being to whom were 
delegated the professional supervisory functions while the old 
boards retained the business side of school administration. 
Board members are the chosen representatives of the school 
patrons, and their manifest duty is to carry out the will of 
the public in educational matters and secure the best pos- 
sible educational results. In no sense of the word, however, 
can board members be considered as educators. Some 
school boards are inclined to dictate methods of instruction 
and rules of school management. This is not surprising, 
since few state laws are clear in their legal limitations on 
this subject. School boards are only following the example 
of their predecessors before supervisors were chosen to take 
charge of the professional phases of school practice. 

School officers should do what they can to assist the teacher 
with practical advice on general community needs. They 
should be ready to provide the working tools which are 
essential in the new educational procedure, and be willing 
to back the teacher in all legitimate educational movements 
for community betterment. 

One can scarcely overemphasize the importance of a 
mutual understanding between teachers and school officials 
respecting one another's rights and responsibilities in school 
administration. The teacher must be tactful and realize 
his legal limitations ; on the other hand, he should not allow 
himself to be domineered by board members who in their 
zealousness to serve the school may attempt to " run " it. 

There is real menace in the common inefficiency of school 
boards. Very few country-bred persons have had adequate 
educational advantages to appreciate the needs of the 
schools. The few who are capable of doing this service 
well, often consider it a thankless task, and are inclined to 
shift the responsibility to others of less ability. 



134 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The writer raised the question some time ago, in another 
book, why not train school board members as we now train 
teachers ? ^ Many states have taken advantage of the 
plan proposed and are bringing their school directors into 
annual institutes, in many cases compulsory and well- 
remunerated. This method of training gives school officials 
a new point of view that is being put to good use in school 
reorganization. 

Small Boards of Education vs. Large Boards. — Each 
of the three units of organization for school purposes has 
its own board of school officials. The small district generally 
has three, the township, three or five, and the county, three, 
five, or seven. Possibly the greatest source of weakness in 
the district system is its numerous boards. Each district 
— which usually means each schoolhouse — is managed 
by a board of three school directors. There is in this way 
three directors for each teacher, or from lOO to 600 directors 
in a single county. It is not unusual to find the absurdly 
large number of 25,000 to 45,000 school officials in some 
states in the Middle West. There is no excuse for this 
waste — not even on the plea that the people should be 
allowed to manage their own schools. It is unreasonable 
to expect that several hundred men can be found in an 
average county suited by temperament and training to 
fill satisfactorily all these positions. If the men could be 
found, there is neither business reason nor educational 
reason for bringing so large a force into the management of 
the schools, since their very numbers are likely to block 
progressive measures. 

The present outlook is quite encouraging. Several states 
have recently discarded the large boards or they have at 
least curtailed the powers of the local officials. In Ohio, 

^ The American Rural School, p. 37. 



RURAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 135 

for example, the old boards have been retained, but they 
have been shorn of their most important powers. In Utah, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee, the small boards have recently 
been abolished altogether and small county boards, com- 
prising leading citizens of the county well-fitted by training, 
have supplanted them. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Show how the small district unit was natural under pioneer conditions 
in the North and West. 

Point out why the small district ought to be supplanted by a larger 
unit. Enumerate all its disadvantages. 

What about the small district and ''local democracy"? 

Would you advocate the county unit for New England in place of the 
prevailing town? Would you make the change in Indiana? Why? 
Are the two cases parallel? 

Do you consider it good policy to make the unit of civil administration 
the school unit as well? Explain. 

Enumerate the good points of the pure county type as illustrated in 
Louisiana. 

Show wherein the Ohio plan is a good compromise of systems. 

Why should such an important power as levying taxes not be entrusted 
to the small district? 

There are four methods of taxation for school purposes — state, county, 
town, and district. Why is it essential to utilize both the state and some 
one of the local (preferably county or town) form of taxation? 

Name a state that depends solely on state taxation ; on town or dis- 
trict taxation. How does the system operate in results? 

If a well-meaning but officious board member overreaches his rights, 
what do you do about it ? 

Special Studies 

Study in detail Monahan's County- Unit Organization for the Adminis- 
tration of Rural Schools. 

Make a digest from one of the following topics in Cubberley's State 
and County Educational Reorganization: County Educational Organiza- 
tion ; District Educational Organization ; Funds and Taxation. 

Summarize Sargent's The Rural and Village Schools of Colorado. 



CHAPTER II 
Professional Supervision of Rural Schools 

Meaning of Expert Supervision to the Teacher. — The 

inexperienced teacher who goes into the rural schools re- 
quires expert direction if any teacher ever needed it. Here 
has been the greatest weakness of the entire system in the 
past. The teachers of the open country, whose problems 
are assuredly the most perplexing in the whole field of educa- 
tion, have had to shift for themselves as best they could. If 
many have failed, it has been in large measure because they 
have not had that close and expert guidance commonly 
found in large town and city schools. The whole plan of 
organization has been at fault. Or, perhaps, more correctly, 
circumstances beyond our control have conspired to make 
conditions what they are. If rural school supervision in 
many states has been little more than incidental inspection, 
it should not be charged against the men and women chosen 
for this work. Their difficulties have been no less than the 
troubles of the teachers. The newness of the country, the 
rapid westward expansion, and other transitions in rural life 
are sufficient to explain the prevailing conditions. 

But the schools of the new era of scientific agriculture 
cannot get along with the perfunctory inspection of the 
passing day. System is demanded. There must be or- 
ganization and leadership. The teachers are facing even 
greater difficulties than they used to have, because the 
teachers' tasks have multiplied greatly. The course of 

136 



PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 137 

study is daily becoming more comprehensive and propor- 
tionately more difficult. The teachers are also expected to 
mean something in community leadership. No teacher 
of average ability can do all this without the encouragement, 
guidance, and constant cooperation of supervising officials 
who have had expert preparation in community leadership 
and school organization, and professional supervision in the 
school subjects. With such a staff of school supervisors at 
his shoulder to encourage him when downhearted by his 
many perplexing problems ; to give him sound advice when 
community troubles arrive ; to aid him to get results in the 
classroom — the rural teacher's work will become more 
desirable and more sought after than it is now. 

History of Rural School Supervision. — The school 
superintendency as teachers usually know it has grown out 
of interesting beginnings. It was shown in the preceding 
chapter how the first superintendents came into existence. 
The great increase in number and kind of duties required of 
the early, unsalaried school committee obliged them to 
demand the assistance of salaried helpers who could take 
upon their shoulders the exacting clerical, financial, and 
instructional responsibilities of their districts. 

The change from the old boards was gradual and only 
kept step with the evolution of the system from little volun- 
tary school districts to town, county, and state school 
organization. West of the Appalachians, as new states 
were admitted, state and county departments were organized 
to administer and apportion the growing school funds, to 
keep records of school population and attendance, to en- 
force the school laws and in other ways carry out the will 
of the people in school matters. These duties did not re- 
quire any particular qualities or training ; therefore the 
positions could be filled in the same way as other civil offices 



138 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

in the county — through seasonal election by the general 
electorate. 

Town Superintendents in New England. — In this section 
of the country the town is the natural supervision unit. 
Everywhere else the county is used, except in New York, 
which has supervision districts of one county or less, and in 
Virginia and Nevada, with supervision districts of one or 
more counties. The enactment of the Massachusetts Super- 
vision Law of 1888 marks the beginning of the modern 
reorganization in New England. Connecticut followed with 
an even stronger act in 1903, and the other states in the 
group have more recently placed effective supervision laws 
on their statute books. 

The old New England school committee had limited its 
activities to occasional visitation, generally much dreaded 
by teachers and pupils alike because it was likely to be 
given to faultfinding and bootless catechizing. When later 
the law required them to elect one of their own number to 
act as supervisor of common schools, at a small per diem, 
little marked improvement could be seen. The supervisors 
were men of affairs whose real interests were centered in 
shop or office. They were without professional training, 
and gave the schools only such time as they felt could be 
spared from their regular occupation. It was found accord- 
ingly that the solution lay in choosing a supervisor for each 
town ; or, in case the two had too small a number of schools 
to occupy all of one man's time, to unite several towns 
into a town union for supervision purposes. This is what 
has been accomplished through recent legislation. 

While it cannot be said that this system has yet given all 
the New England states as close and effective supervision as 
might be desired, it is, at any rate, superior to most of the 
loose county supervision that prevails in the Middle West 



PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 139 

and West. It has the advantage that the supervisors are 
chosen by the town or union district school committees, and 
in some cases, appointed by the state authorities instead of 
being left to the mercies of party politics. The supervisors 
are furthermore paid for their services in part by the state 
and in part by the supervision district, a method which gives 
the former a certain amount of authority over the super- 
visors. Finally, nearly all the states require a reasonable 
amount of professional preparation and teaching experience 
in the candidates for supervisory positions. 

County Supervision. — Aside from New England and 
two or three other states, the nation at large makes use of 
the county for supervisory purposes. This is true of coun- 
ties whether subdivided into townships, as in Ohio, or into 
one-school districts, as in Nebraska, or containing only one 
county-wide district, as in most of Utah. One county 
superintendent has the supervision of all the schools, how- 
ever they may be divided in local control and administration. 
But the success of the school superintendent in school 
administration is closely related to the degree of subdivision 
to which the county has been subdivided. Where the 
county comprises one large unit in charge of a single board 
with a superintendent as executive official, very satisfactory 
results are usually obtained. It is not too much to say, 
perhaps, that in time the county unit will supersede the 
small types of organization in most states and in this way 
afford a better basis for professional school supervision. 

Increasing Importance of the County Superintendency. — 
The rapid changes in rural life have thrust new responsi- 
bilities on the superintendent as well as on his teachers. He 
still retains the clerical and financial duties given the office 
at its founding. The instructional work of the school has 
grown in importance and requires much of his time. The 



I40 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

selection of textbooks and school equipment also is left 
more and more to the superintendent. The holding of 
institutes for teachers and annual meetings of the school 
officers are recently added responsibilities unknown in the 
day of the early school committee. To perform these 
duties satisfactorily the superintendent must be an expert 
in the instructional and administrative phases of teaching. 

Such a multiplicity of school work is quite beyond the 
abilities of a person chosen merely for clerical aptness from 
the general electorate. It demands, first of all, a good 
organizer. It requires a man of exceptional business 
ability. Then, too, he must be a prof essionar supervisor 
with good ability to assist in the teaching process ; a man of 
unlimited energy and, withal, a man who has the courage of 
his convictions. That it is difficult to find all these qualities 
in one person is evident. Thus it appears that the position 
of supervisor is at once a most important office and a most 
difficult one to fill well. 

The Difficulties of the Old System, Low Academic and 
Professional Requirements. — It is well to repeat again 
that the supervisors should not be held responsible for the 
inadequateness of the old supervision. The great changes 
that have come in our public life have left the old school 
organization retarded and inadequate to do the work ex- 
pected of it. The chief difficulties in the way of effective 
supervision are enumerated in the following paragraphs. 

The old New England town superintendents were clergy- 
men, farmers, merchants, doctors — anything and every- 
thing except trained superintendents. Their successors 
have had little more preparation for the office than they ; 
but the time has come to insist on standard qualifications 
for all supervising officers, fixed by law for the performance 
of their important office. The superintendents should 



PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 141 

assuredly know more about the details of the school routine 
than the teachers under their control. The lamentable 
fact is that many who supervise the children's training in 
rural schools have known much less about teaching than 
have the teachers under them. 

A superintendent, in order to be of real influence in the 
new system, must be well educated and well trained, partly 
through study and partly through successful teaching experi- 
ence. His academic preparation should include a complete 
high school course, or its equivalent, and, preferably, a 
thorough college course. This furnishes him a technical 
knowledge of all the subjects in the course of study and 
gives him besides a reserve force and breadth of vision 
that will make him a stronger supervisor than he could 
otherwise be. He should have a thorough knowledge of 
the professional subjects which lie at the root of the theory 
and art of teaching, such as practical psychology and child 
study, philosophy of education, methods of teaching, school 
management, and practice teaching. He should have had 
also several years of successful teaching experience imme- 
diately preceding his appointment to office. 

A number of states already demand liberal academic and 
professional requirements for this office. In some states no 
person can enter upon the duties of the office who does not 
hold a certificate from the state Department of Education 
as a testimonial that he has all the qualifications required 
by the state for this important office. 

Elimination of Party Politics. — The office of superintend- 
ent was thrust into party politics in the early days when men 
considered it an office to be filled by any good citizen of 
ordinary qualifications, as it seemed to require no peculiar 
educational qualities. Since then opinion has gone through 
a change. All thoughtful people now agree that rural 



142 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

supervision cannot be put on a true professional basis before 
politics is removed from the office. The elimination of 
partisanship is the only guarantee we have that real fitness 
in the candidate will receive just consideration. Where the 
office is political, many of our best teachers deem it unpro- 
fessional to enter a contest for the position which leaves it 
a plum to be manipulated by local party leaders. 

City and town superintendents are chosen in the United 
States by local boards for professional merit and ability. 
The candidates seeking election are not limited to the 
particular city or legality, but may come from anywhere. 
The rural superintendent, on the other hand, is usually 
chosen from the bounds of his own small community and 
would stand little chance if picked from elsewhere. But 
times are changing. This is well illustrated in the town 
organization of New England and the county organization 
in certain of the Southern states. Here, as we learned in 
Chapter II, the supervisors are elected by the local boards 
for their ability and professional skill. In Louisiana, for 
example, the supervisor is the executive officer of the parish 
board. He has practically complete charge of all the schools 
in the parish. It is his task to reorganize the schools ; to 
say when schools ought to be closed and when consolidated. 
He nominates the teachers and places them in the schools 
which they suit best ; he is thereafter held responsible by 
the board for the success or failure of the teachers. He is 
well paid for his work and is provided with professional 
assistants and office help. In this way only, can the best 
results be attained. 

Low Salary and Uncertain Tenure. — In addition to what 
has been said above, it is necessary to add that in many sec- 
tions the public does not appreciate the importance of the 
office by paying the superintendents a suitable salary. In 



PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 143 

the whole list of county officials, the superintendent is paid 
the most meager salary. His office is shunted into the base- 
ment or into the upper story of the courthouse as a person 
to be tolerated but not to be encouraged. There are still 
many county superintendents in the Middle West and West 
who receive less than $1000 a year, a salary so low that 
mature educators of family responsibilities find it impossible 
to hold the difficult office permanently. 

What is true of the salary is also true of the short and un- 
certain office tenure. Under the political system the term 
in most places is two years, with a probable reelection for 
another two years. The superintendent is thereupon 
expected to retire in favor of some other person in order 
that the office may be passed around to other members of 
the party. These things must be remedied, and, fortunately, 
are going through a change in many states at this time. 

The Superintendent, a Rural Life Expert. — The first 
requirement in the successful superintendent is thorough 
academic and professional preparation, broad experience, 
and similar qualities ; but even to these something must be 
added in order that the greatest measure of success may be 
obtained — a broad knowledge of rural life and an active 
sympathy with its problems. The superintendent must 
be a leader of leaders in rural life. Without the inspiration 
of his guidance and assistance in organization for rural 
leadership, the new kind of teachers must continue to be 
handicapped as much as soldiers who are deprived of officers 
to lead them. The superintendent should know scientific 
agriculture as he knows his A B C's. He should be able to 
organize the new vocational subjects, including nature study, 
agriculture, household economics, and manual training. 
He should organize and direct short courses for the patrons 
of the school community and continuation school work for 



144 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

all the young people of the community unable to attend the 
regular school sessions. These are great opportunities 
and great responsibilities, but they require real ability and 
long preparation for successful results. 

Assistant Supervisors, a First Step. — In striving to 
relieve the superintendent in his tasks, legal authorities 
began first by providing him with one or more office 
assistants. In many states the superintendent has been 
obliged to get along with this clerical help for a few 
months during the inspection season while the schools were 
in session. This aid has generally been enlarged in most 
sections of the country so as to include permanent office 
helpers. Some states have permissive laws under which the 
county may be subdivided into supervision districts, while 
others, notably Ohio, West Virginia, and Oregon, have legal 
requirements under which the counties must be subdivided 
into supervision districts. As we have learned above, Ohio 
organizes its county into supervision districts with a super- 
visor for not less than twenty nor more than sixty teachers. 
In West Virginia, the law provides one supervisor for not less 
than twenty nor more than fifty teachers. Since in Ohio 
the farming communities are more compact than in West 
Virginia, legal requirements work out in practice much the 
same in the two states. 

As the system develops and the superintendent gets 
assistant supervisors, he may retain for himself charge of the 
office work with general oversight of the field practice. 
Under this system the additional supervisors can generally 
be more expert in lending direct assistance in the classroom 
subjects. The first-chosen assistants have often followed the 
practice of the political superintendent by continuing his 
old system of Inspection, though more Intensively. But 
with the Introduction of the new industrial or vocational 



PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 145 

problems in the schools, a new kind of industrial supervisor 
is coming into the schools. 

State System of Rural School Supervision. — Perhaps no 
more important thing has happened in recent years for rural 
school supervision than the active interest shown in thework 
by state departments of education. It has been customary 
for the state departments to limit their inspectorial energies 
to the village and city elementary and high schools, but 
recently a marked change has taken place with the appoint- 
ment of state rural school- supervisors and special subject 
supervisors. This activity also had its origin in the South 
where private foundations have for some time paid the 
salaries of supervisors of this kind in a number of states. 
The tendency is more recently for the states to supply the 
funds for the salaries from state taxation. 

A few states are still obliged to get along with a single 
state rural school supervisor, although the system is working 
out in practice so admirably that in most of the agricultural 
sections the number of supervisors has increased to two, 
three, and even more in a state department. 

Gradual Spread of Industrial Supervision. — An im- 
portant forward step can be seen in the organization of in- 
dustrial supervision in rural schools. This movement 
began in the Southern states and is of recent origin. It 
sprang directly out of the great movement for industrial 
efficiency promoted by the United States Government and 
several private foundations whose agricultural experts have 
been at work in Southern counties for a number of years 
reorganizing agricultural life. These club workers and 
agricultural experts gave the first impetus to the movement 
that is now being continued through the schools, usually 
by supervisors attached to the county superintendent's office. 
Many hundred Southern counties in twelve or rnore states 



146 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

maintain county rural supervisors, some of whom supervise 
not alone agriculture, but also household economics and 
industrial club work. In the best-organized counties there 
are rural school supervisors who devote all their time to 
agriculture and clubs for boys. Well-trained women 
experts do the same kind of work in girls' clubs and school 
work in household economics, and help project the activities 
into the farm homes. 

Intensive industrial supervision of this nature is no longer 
limited to the Southern States. It is being introduced in the 
North and West in many counties scattered from coast to 
coast. The outlook is bright for the spread of the work 
to every section of the country. 

Some Striking Examples of Professional Supervision. — 
The accompanying map illustrates the progress of district 
supervision in West Virginia, for 191 5-16. The white 
parts indicate the areas professionally supervised. There 
are seventy-eight such districts in the state, ranging from 
one to six in a county. The county superintendent is an 
executive official in West Virginia, while the district super- 
visor is a professional expert. In a larger sense the 
district supervisor represents the county superintendent 
within the district, helping • local school boards in their 
problems ; but his specific duties lie in the instructional 
field. 

Utah is another state in which professional supervision 
of rural schools is making marked progress. This is almost 
wholly due to the new county unit organization. In Box 
Elder County, for example, the supervising force consists 
of a county superintendent, a primary supervisor, and a 
supervisor each of music, art and drawing, and nature study 
and agriculture. It is unnecessary to point out In detail 
the quickening Influence of such a working-staff as this on 



PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 147 

the teachers and schools of the county. What is true of 
Box Elder County, is true as well of other counties in Utah. 




Fig. 15. — Progress of professional supervision in West Virginia. 
The white areas are supplied with district supervisors. 

Wisconsin has recently passed a law providing for the 
employment of " supervising teachers " in each county. 
They are nominated by the county superintendent and 
elected by the County Committee on Common Schools. 
Only women are employed. The minimum salary is $60 per 
month, the maximum $80 ; traveling expenses are allowed. 
Counties with more than 125 schools may have two super- 
vising teachers. The salaries and expenses are paid by the 



148 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

county, although the state later reimburses it. The super- 
vising teachers work under the direction of the county 
superintendent. They give their special attention to the 
new teachers and those who seem in need of help. In the 
year that the new plan has been in operation some really 
good work has been done. Eighty such supervising teachers 
are now employed in the state. 

New Jersey utilizes a plan somewhat similar. In a number 
of counties " helping teachers " have been appointed by the 
state Commissioner of Education, who are devoting practi- 
cally all of their time under the direction of the county 
superintendents to assisting teachers in the one- and two- 
teacher buildings, particularly those who are new in service. 

Sections of New England are also making progress in 
professional supervision. In Woodstock Town (township), 
Vermont, for example, specialists are employed who give 
lessons to rural children in music and drawing, and, between 
visits, they direct and instruct the teachers in how to pre- 
sent these subjects to their pupils. 

The Future of Rural School Supervision in Our Country. — 
The outlook for the future of rural school supervision in our 
country is hopeful, chiefly because educators are getting 
awake to the great need, and legislative assemblies have 
begun to wrestle with the problem, seeking the solution 
best suited to local conditions. Meanwhile, the National 
Government is doing what it can to be of direct assistance. 
This has already been partly realized in an indirect way 
through appointment of local experts, in agriculture and 
household economics, under the Smith-Lever Act. The 
service is primarily for adults outside the schools, although 
its influence is felt in the schools also. In many counties the 
new government agents assist the teachers and county 
superintendents in solving their industrial problems. The 



PROFESSIONAL SUPERVISION OF RURAL SCHOOLS 149 

Smith-Hughes Vocational Education Act will unquestionably 
be of the greatest assistance in perfecting supervision in 
the industrial subjects, as the bill specifically provides for 
instruction in industrial subjects — agricultural and others 
— in secondary schools, making provision likewise for prep- 
aration of teachers in vocational subjects. 

Thus, with national liberality and assistance, and a more 
thorough organization within the states through the depart- 
ments of education, and with the establishment of one or 
more special superv^isors in each county, really great things 
may be hoped for in rural school supervision. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Show just why rural teachers need expert professional supervision. 

What has been your own experience as teacher ? Was the system so 
organized that you received real benefit from your professional relations 
with the superintendent ? 

Tell the story of the evolution of the school superintendency in the 
United States. 

Enumerate the chief weaknesses in the old system of county supervision. 

Make a list of all the states in which the superintendency is no longer 
political. (See Bureau of Education Bulletin 1914, No. 43.) 

Why should the superintendent be a rurallife expert? 

How is the superintendency in your community organized? What 
office assistance has the superintendent? What field workers? 

What is the outlook for professional supervision in your county ? Has 
the county any industrial supervision? 

Special Studies 

Make a written report on County School Officers from Cubberley's 
State and County Educational Reorganization, pp. 44-54. 

Read and report on ''The Supervision of Rural Schools" in Betts and 
Hall's Better Rural Schools, pp. 329-346. 

Summarize "Rural School Supervision" in Foght's American Rural 
School, pp. 50-68. 



CHAPTER III 

The Redirected One-teacher School 

General Statement. — It is time to turn from the general 
legal and professional phases of school organization and 
administration to the schools themselves, to study their 
physical organization and adaptability to public needs. 

We have in our country rural schools and rural schools. 
For, in truth, they may be seen in every stage of evolution 
from the little old one-room school of the pioneer period to 
the well-equipped consolidated rural elementary and high 
school. It is literally true that in many states " still sits 
the schoolhouse by the road, a ragged beggar sunning. 
Around it still the sumacs grow, and blackberry vines are 
running." The interpretation is of forlornness and neglect. 
For wild blackberry vines on the schoolground are no better 
than brambles and thistles ! In some backward mountain 
sections the old " blab school " may still be encountered. 
On the new frontier in the Southwest and West adobe and 
sod shanties are still common. But the general trend is to 
reorganize the old-time one-room schools as modern one- 
teacher schools, or, where practicable, as well-graded con- 
solidated schools. 

The " One-teacher School ''vs. the '' One-room School." 
— Probably 212,000 schools of the single teacher type 
can still be found in rural communities, the only means 
of education open to the large majority of rural children. 
It is now accepted as good national policy to reorganize 

150 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 151 

all these schools to answer the needs of the new era of com- 
mercial agriculture. Many of the small schools can never 
be made into large centralized schools, on account of topo- 
graphical reasons. In broken mountain districts, or in 
sections of the country cut by streams and ragged coast 
lines, or in sparsely settled regions, such a reorganization is 
seldom feasible, and should not be urged. If, on the other 
hand, these natural obstacles do not exist and the only 
drawbacks in the way are entrenched in old traditions and 
failure of the people to understand modern educational 
needs, — then it would seem the teacher's duty to champion 
the centralization movement rationally and energetically. 

The one outstanding fact not to be lost sight of is that the 
one- teacher school is a pioneer institution, intended for 
pioneer conditions, which only in exceptional instances finds 
itself able to satisfy modern educational needs. So long as 
the small school continues in physical reality and in teaching 
process, to be a " one-room " school, little can be expected 
from it. If for good reasons there can be no centralization, 
the school may at least be transformed into a genuine " one- 
teacher " school. The distinction is vital. The former is 
the pioneer institution ; the latter is this institution made 
over by the exceptional teacher of the William Tracy type. 

Wherein the Average One -room School Falls Short. — 
The purpose of the rural school is avowedly to prepare 
rural folk for useful, contented lives on the land. This is 
a surpassingly big task and utterly beyond the abilities of 
the old-time pioneer or household-economy time school. 
In those days the school was the auxiliary of the home in 
educating the children. Nowadays, the school is charged 
with a multitude of responsibilities that formerly devolved 
on the home. For the new responsibilities the school has 
been obliged to depend on an immature teacher of little or 



152 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

no experience with rural needs and conditions. Even where 
the school plant Is all that may be desired, If the right kind 
of teachers are wanting, little can be accomplished. 

A short time ago the writer had opportunity to study an 
ideal one- teacher school in a state of the Middle West. The 
building was modern In every respect. It was correctly 
lighted, heated, and ventilated. The grounds contained 
two and one-half acres of land. It was gradually being 
planted to trees and shrubbery after a satisfactory planting 
plan. The genius who had made the entire community 
rally to the support of the new school was none other than 
the teacher — a man of Herbert Quick's " brown mouse " 
type. But, as too often happens In rural communities, 
there had been a change in teachers. An immature, in- 
experienced person — well-meaning, no doubt — had taken 
the successful teacher's place. With what results? The 
one-teacher school was again reverting to the type of one- 
room school. People of the community were once more 
beginning to send their children to town to school just as 
they had done before the new school was established. 

The "Brown Mouse," the Exceptional Teacher. — It 
takes a real genius to make the most of the one- teacher 
school. Such a one Is the " brown mouse " teacher de- 
scribed in Herbert Quick's little book on the Iowa rural 
school.^ The author calls attention to the fact that a brown 
mouse Is a sport, or accident, In the rodent family ; but 
according to Mendel's law, where such a one appears, un- 
usual things may be expected. It is much the same with the 
exceptional teacher of the small school. Mr. Quick's 
brown mouse teacher came into possession of the school 
by accident ; but he made the most of his opportunity and, 
in time, after many trials, found himself the educational 

^ See The Brown Mouse, by Herbert Quick, Bobbs-iNIerrill Co., publishers. 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 153 

leader of the community, and in possession of a fine modern 
school, set in a real agricultural laboratory, even a fine 
little teacherage being a part of the school plant. For- 
tunately there are some brown mouse teachers in actual 
life, or it would go hard with the small school. 

The Porter Community School, Missouri. — No more 
striking illustration can be found anywhere of the teacher 
in community leadership than that of Marie Turner Harvey, 
whose genius, inspiration, and devotion to her work have 
been instrumental in changing a small neglected rural school 
in Northeast Missouri into a remarkable community school 
now well known over the country for its good work. 

The Porter School — for such is its name — lies near 
Kirksville, Missouri, in a prosperous agricultural community. 
The school was up to some four years ago generally neg- 
lected, a majority of the children in the district attending 
school in town. Community spirit was unknown and, 
indeed, a feud had split the school district into hostile fac- 
tions. At this juncture, Mrs. Flarvey came into the com- 
munity, determined to prove that the small school is full 
of possibilities for community organization if properly 
directed. 

Her great achievement as a leader has been in her ability 
to quicken the community spirit in a district where people 
were unused to work together — where, indeed, they mostly 
pulled apart. From a precarious beginning the feeling of 
kinship, of friendly cooperation, of general helpfulness, has 
grown until young and old alike vie with each other to see 
who can do the most for the Porter community. The work ■ 
has grown to include, besides the regular school activities, 
a vacation school, agricultural short courses in cooperation 
with the state college of agriculture, cadet work for training 
in rural leadership, and the maintenance of social and 



154 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



economic clubs, musical organizations, nature study clubs, 
etc., for the young people as well as for their parents. 

Evolution of the School. — It is well to reiterate that the 
many things in the school that appeal to the casual observer 




Fig. i6. — Grounds of the Porter School. The orchard and experiment 
farm lie at the background. 

are effect rather than cause in this enterprise. Once the 
spirit of the community was awakened, the rest became easy. 
The first step was to rebuild the school plant, which was 
done wholly through voluntary effort. A person who gives 
up his time or substance in a project of this kind, who hauls 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 



155 



sand and cement, who excavates the basement, who paints 
the schoolhouse, who constructs the fence, as was done at 
the Porter School, will have a vital interest in the school. 

To-day the one-time ramshackle school stands recon- 
structed. In the new-cemented basement is a fine hot air 



PORTER SCHOOL DEMONSTRATION FARM 



/'Manure 
Rl. < Lime 
^Bone 
["Manure 



F.2. 



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R3. No Treatment 
F.4. Lime 
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A B C D 

1914 Corn Soybeans Oats & Clover Cowpeas 

1915 SoybYis.&Cowjis Wheat & Oats Clovers Corn 

1916 Wheat & Oats Clovers Corn Soyb'rife.&Cowp^. 

1917 Clovers Corn Soyb'ns.&Cowp^Wheat&Oats 

Plat E-Corn 1914 — 1917 

Plat F- Alfalfa 

Plat G- Fruits 

Fig. 17. — The above cut shows the Porter School grounds, orchard, 
and demonstration farm. 



156 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

furnace, pressure water tank, drinking fountain, lavatories, 
and complete kitchen outfit for community rallies. The 
main classroom is well appointed and restful to the eye. 
It has all that can be desired in community library, musical 
instrument, and other equipment — nearly all the volun- 
teer offerings of patrons and friends. 

The grounds, as may be seen from the accompanying 
plat, have been planted to trees, shrubs, and flowers. Prac- 
tical homemade play apparatus has been set up and, best 
of all, is used early and late. 

Perhaps no part of this community school is more interest- 
ing than the school farm of five acres, adjoining the school 
grounds on the east. The land was leased to the district 
for a term of years, free of cost, by an enthusiastic member 
of the comimunity, who was himself formerly indifferent to 
the school. The State College of Agriculture plotted the 
farm and gives it occasional expert attention. It is other- 
wise worked cooperatively by the school and the adult 
farmers' club, under the direction of the teacher and the 
State College extension service. 

The extreme left of the cut, marked S. H., represents the 
school and yard. The area marked G is an interesting 
school orchard, the trees all being donated by an interested 
Missouri nursery. The six demonstration plots are planned 
for a practical four-year rotation of greatest value to the 
entire community. 

The Teacher age and Garden. — The genius of the teacher 
has converted an old tenant house — half a mile from the 
school — into a pretty little teacherage where she and her 
mother live the year round to bless the community. Here 
is also the school garden in which vacation-time studies are 
kept up zealously by the teacher and children. The garden 
contains a variety of wholesome vegetables formerly little 




Activities at the Porter School 



The upper illustration shows some of the machinery used in the agricultural tests 
which are a feature of the annual '"short course." The lower illustration shows a 
group of children at work in the Porter School garden. 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 157 

known in the average grain-growing and stock-raising 
sections of Missouri. 

The Movable School of Agriculture. — The Porter 
School was first to convince the State College of Agriculture 
of the possibilities of agricultural short courses at the one- 
teacher schools. Such a course is now held annually. The 
crowds in attendance upon the practical demonstrations 
have been so great that a large tent has recently been used 
to take care of the crowds. 

Community Activities. — The following gives in part the 
1 91 5 summer schedule for the use of the schoolhouse, when 
many schoolhouses are given over to bats and cobwebs 
and other unsightly things : 

Wednesday and Saturday nights Band Practice. 

Thursday nights, alternate weeks Farmers' and 

Women's Clubs. 
Monday nights (study of algebra and ancient history (H. S.) unfinished 

work of graduates because of farm work). 6 weeks. 

Friday nights Music class. 

Wednesdays, vacation school ; nature study related to the activities of 

children attending, the reading, spelling, arithmetic, etc., adapted to 

same. 

Reports from journals of those doing work in individual gardens, and 
with poultry, are heard weekly. 

The Junior Audubon Society meets twice a month on Wednesday. 
(23 members.) 

Space allows no further details of this brown mouse 
teacher and her work. A book could be written on how 
the Porter School prepares for life, how Mrs. Harvey's 
probable successors are even now working as apprentice 
teachers in the school ; how the clubs hold their meetings 
and what they do ; how Porter celebrates the Nation's 
Independence Day and other holidays ; and how it finds 



158 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

time to celebrate seed time and harvest, work time and 
rest time 

Increasing the Small School's Efficiency through ''Stand- 
ardization." — State educational authorities in many states 
have accomplished something for the one-room schools by 
" standardizing " them. The average community, it is 
reasoned, does not realize the true condition of its school, as 
there is no accepted standard to measure it by. The school- 
house is probably as good as, and perhaps better than, the 
one a majority of the adult population had attended — so 
what more could be desired ! It is oftener pure ignorance 
of modern educational requirements than niggardliness 
that keeps people satisfied to drag along with the old one- 
room school. They need to be awakened to the new educa- 
tional requirements. This may be accomplished in a 
measure where a well-built, well-taught school is organized 
in the vicinity of the self-satisfied community. The only 
reason to fear the results of the sort of school standardiza- 
tion going forward now, is that it is likely to stop short of 
that complete revitalization so essential in a real farm 
community school. 

The Usual Plan Followed in Standardization. — The State 
Departments of Education in Illinois, Oregon, Alabama, 
Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
and many other states in their efforts at improvement have 
adopted uniform rules of measurement for the standardiza- 
tion of small rural schools in their respective states. Rep- 
resentatives of the state departments, or others delegated 
for this purpose, usually make a study of the school grounds, 
of the building and its physical equipment, of the teacher's 
preparation, and the general school practice. A definite 
score card is used by some, each item under consideration 
receiving a percentage valuation. In Oregon, the standards 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 159 

are printed on a large card and posted in the schoolroom, 
and the inspector on his visits pastes a star opposite each 
item attained until the school is ready to receive state recog- 
nition. In Illinois, the schools may attain distinction as 
" standard " or '' superior " schools, the requirements for 
the latter being much more severe than for standard schools. 

What has been Accomplished. — School standardization 
has undeniably done much for many small schools. It has 
been instrumental in getting larger, more sanitary and well- 
kept school grounds ; it has enforced the improvement of 
school architecture ; it has given the school a better physical 
equipment ; it has lengthened the school year, and has 
increased teachers' salaries ; finally it has provided the 
schools with better teachers and an enriched course of study. 
But here the process usually stops — and stops short, un- 
fortunately, of securing a real farm community school, 
unless, to be sure, an exceptional teacher happens to be 
in charge of the school. A state like Illinois has several 
thousand schools of the " standard " type, but only a score 
of the " superior " kind. If the state can, by degrees, 
make over the former group of schools into the latter, the 
outlook will be bright indeed for its efficient one-teacher 
schools. 

Here is the crux ! the '' standard " school is an improved 
pioneer school and no more, while the '' superior " school 
goes far enough in redirecting its work to make it fit reason- 
ably well into community needs. A careful study of the 
average standard school discloses that, notwithstanding its 
general improvement over the original type, it is seldom able 
to offer the larger boys and girls the vital interests that will 
keep them in school till the prescribed course is completed. 

The superior school of the Illinois type makes provision 
for teaching the elements of agriculture, manual training, and 



i6o 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



EXPLANATIOfl:- 

• STANDARD SCHOOL 

♦ SUPERIOR SCHOOL 




Fig. 1 8. — This map shows graphically how the rural schools are becoming 
standardized in Illinois. The crosses indicate the "superior" schools. 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL i6i 

household arts. With these are usually coupled other 
activities that help to draw school and home together. It 
has frequently become the social center of the community, 
and interesting school and home projects get their inspira- 
tion from the school. 

Suggested Requirements for a Really Effective Standard 
One-teacher School. — A truly effective one- teacher school 
must be standardized around such educational essentials 
as these: (i) a teacher with specialized preparation and 
willingness to make rural community teaching his permanent 
occupation ; (2) a school plant equipped to provide an 
education related to rural life and its needs ; (3) a course of 
instruction and methods of teaching in accord with the 
needs and nature of agricultural people. 

The teacher is the chief factor in the new standardization. 
He should preferably have his professional training from one 
of the special schools for rural teachers ; in any case he 
must be rural-minded, must love rural life, and understand 
its difficult problems. He must be willing to cast his lot 
with the country people, living in their midst the year round. 

The school plant required is almost as essential as a prop- 
erly prepared teacher. The grounds should contain at 
least five acres, and preferably more. Mrs. Harvey's 
school, it will be recalled, has six acres — not any too much 
— one acre being used for playground and parking, the other 
five acres for orchard and school farm. 

The school building should comply with rigid hygienic 
requirements in lighting, heating, and ventilating ; and 
should, in addition, provide ample room and equipment for 
experimental agriculture and gardening, household eco- 
nomics, and manual training. Several of the rooms should 
be arranged so that they may be thrown together to form 
an assembly room to provide space for community rallies. 



i62 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The chief departure in the new school plant is the teacher's 
cottage, or teacherage. Without a permanent home in the 
school community at his disposal, it is difficult to conceive 
of a permanent rural teacher. The home should be erected 
on the school grounds and be kept up at community ex- 
pense. A portion of the school grounds should be set apart 
for a teacher's garden. 

Such a school plant as contemplated in the standard sug- 
gested would hold out real inducements to strong, married 
teachers to take charge of the school, and would make it 
quite possible for the teacher to continue many outdoor 
activities of his school during the summer months. 

The course of instruction is the third essential in the new 
standard. It should, in brief, embrace all the cultural and 
practical things that the farmer and his wife ought to 
know, in order to live healthy, wholesome lives in the com- 
munity ; to be ready to accept their responsibilities and 
opportunities as citizens of the republic ; to know how to 
make a good living ; and, finally, to understand how to use 
a well-earned leisure to their own ethical and esthetical 
advancement. These phases of the problem are outlined 
in detail in Part III of the book. 

Probably considerable legislation would be necessary in 
some states before such standards can be reached. Among 
other things, special state aid could well be voted as induce- 
ment to standardize the schools. The states should also 
offer special inducements to teachers to remain in the same 
community by scaling up their salaries — adding each year 
an increasing sum to the amount paid by the local com- 
munity. Such laws are already in use in Wisconsin and 
Indiana. 

The remainder of this chapter is devoted to a more detailed 
statement of a few vital phases of the one- teacher school plant. 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 163 

Some Oft-Repeated Suggestions. — Many excellent trea- 
tises have been produced recently on the subject of improved 
buildings and grounds for rural schools. Particular atten- 
tion is called to a small brochure entitled Minimum 
Health Requirements for Rural Schools, prepared by 
Doctor Thomas D. Wood, Chairman of the Committee on 
Health Problems for the National Council for Education. 
Seven hundred and fifty thousand copies have been dis- 
tributed free through the United States Bureau of Education. 
If school officials and teachers would follow the suggestions 
of the pamphlet, new '' standards " would speedily be forth- 
coming. Another valuable bulletin on the subject is Doctor 
F. B. Dresslar's Rural Schoolhouses and Grounds, published 
as Bureau of Education Bulletin 1914, No. 12. This also 
should be in every teacher's hands. 

The wealth of easily obtainable materials on schoolhouse 
construction, equipment, and upkeep precludes the necessity 
for repeating in this book the common arguments for im- 
proved school grounds, well-heated, lighted, and ventilated 
buildings, etc. Only those phases of the school plant are 
discussed which bear immediately on the school as a re- 
vitalized community school. 

The School Plant, an Educational Laboratory. — In the 
new conception of the rural school, it is the purpose ever to 
keep before the teacher's consciousness a vision of the ideal 
school plant, or, as it is called here, the " school laboratory." 
This is no misnomer, because the new school is a place 
where vital experiments are tried and real problems are 
solved. A one-room school set in a small half-acre lot and 
used for six to nine months annually does not fill the require- 
ments of the new conception. 

A permanent teacher and a school utilized twelve months in 
the year are part and parcel in the new school. Modern 



164 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



community needs shape the work of the school, and this, 
again, dictates the shaping of the school plant. 

The school plant shown in the accompanying illustration 
gives the teacher a good idea of the new ideals. It is an all- 
year-round social and educational center, and an enduring 
model for the best farming and best living. The model. 




Fig. 19. — Ground plan of an ideal rural community school prepared, in miniature, by 
the Bureau of Education for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Provision is made for housing 
the teacher and in other ways making the school a real farmers' school. 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 165 

while primarily planned as a consolidated school, will answer 
the purposes of the one-teacher school as well, with some 
modification in the school building. This laboratory may 
have from five to an almost indefinite number of acres of 
land. In the central foreground lies the school building in a 
chaste setting of lawn, flowers, and trees. This is flanked on 
either side by playgrounds for tennis, basketball, and other 
games. The large central area in the picture is used for 
baseball and track athletics ; on either side of this, and sep- 
arated from it by planted trees, are the school's large experi- 
ment fields. At the left background is the teacher's home 
and large grounds and garden. To the right of this can be 
seen the school barn and poultry pens, used jointly by the 
school and teacher. Finally, at the right of this again can 
be seen the horse sheds where the farmers stable their 
animals while in attendance at the week-end school rallies. 

It needs little imagination to picture the significance of 
such a school to any community. In charge of a permanent 
teacher it would rouse the pride and quicken the initiative 
of the patrons. The young people would find here interests 
unknown in the other one- teacher schools, and the old people 
would seek in it practical instruction and social recreation. 

The Teacher's Cottage. — The importance of providing 
a home for the teacher cannot be overestimated. In the 
first place it would mean a long stride toward permanent 
teaching ; because it would induce strong, well-prepared men 
and women to settle down to a life-work in the district, 
determined to give the people there the best of which they 
are capable. In the second place, the teacherage with its 
land and outbuildings would naturally draw married men 
teachers back into the profession, — not in sufficient numbers 
to force the women from the profession, but enough to put 
a leaven of masculinity into the teaching force. 



1 66 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The writer has often visited districts where it was im- 
possible for the teacher to procure a suitable lodging and 
boarding place. Either people are so well-to-do that they 
do not care to bother with the teacher, or they are so poorly 
housed that the teacher experiences nothing but discomfort 
and inconvenience. Very often the teacher has little pri- 
vacy. He may likely as not have to room with some 
member of the family. The room is often unheated in 
winter, so that if there is to be any studying it has to be 
done in the family living room amid annoyance and in- 
terruption. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising 
that many capable teachers hesitate to remain in the rural 
communities. 

The movement to house the teachers is not new in our 
country. In the day of the household economy farmer it 
was, as a matter of fact, quite common. But more recently 
the practice has fallen into disuse. Now, however, a re- 
vival of good proportions is under way which bids fair to 
revolutionize prevailing practices. 

Teachers' Cottages in European Countries. — In Euro- 
pean countries teachers' homes are as much a part of the 
school plant as are the classrooms. They may be seen 
anywhere in England, Germany, France, Scandinavia, Den- 
mark, Switzerland, either as separate cottages or as a suite 
of rooms in the school building. 

In Denmark, for example, there is legal requirement that 
every school shall have ample housing facilities. These 
range from three-room suites in the case of unmarried women 
teachers to seven or eight rooms for married men. The 
suites are built, as a rule, in connection with the main school 
building, using either the second floor or a wing on the 
first floor. Where more than one teacher lives in the build- 
ing, each suite of rooms invariably has its own separate 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 



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i6S THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

entrance. This system of teacher housing is very successful 
and means much for the teacher and for community 
leadership. 

Another thing of interest is that all teachers are by law en- 
titled to a garden. This is planned and planted to shrub- 
bery and fruit at community expense. The garden may 
vary from a small lot to nearly an acre of ground. In a few 
instances women teachers accept a sum of money in lieu 
of the garden. Not alone do the gardens supplement the 
teachers' incomes, but they are often used as experimental 
plats for the schools. 

Recent Tendencies in the United States. — There are 
probably about six hundred teachers' cottages now in use 
in rural communities. Texas heads the list with one hundred 
fifty; the young state of Washington is second with more 
than one hundred ; Nebraska, Tennessee, South Carolina, 
niinois, and Louisiana are other states doing much in this 
direction. 

In our country the tendency is to construct separate 
cottages. This is, on the whole, fortunate ; for, as Doctor 
Dresslar suggests, ^ "a teacher's family needs privacy; 
the school children require freedom. The playground should 
not be encroached upon, neither should the sanitary appli- 
ances be used in common by the school and the home." 
Doctor Dresslar suggests further, as may be seen in the 
ground plan on page 192, that the entire land area be divided 
into two parts, "one for the schoolhouse and playgrounds, 
and the other for the teacher's house and the experimental 
farm and gardens." The agricultural experiments should, of 
course, be considered as part of the school work, and what- 
ever profits are netted might form a part of the teacher's 
compensation. 

^ Rural SchoolJiouses and Grounds, p. 123. 




Types or Modern One-Teacher Schools 



The upper illustration is the Rittenhouse School, Lincoln County, Ontario, Can- 
ada; and the lower, the Kirksville, Missouri, Model Rural School. 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 169 

A Sanitary Water Supply for All Rural Schools. — No 

school can be said to be fully modern, if it does not have a 
sanitary and convenient water-supply. Nothing in the 
whole school plant is more essential to physical and moral 
health than an abundance of pure water for all purposes. 

A first requirement is to have a good flowing well on the 
school premises — wherever physical conditions permit. No 
school should depend for its supply on nearby springs or a 
neighboring farmer's well. Springs are liable to contamina- 
tion, and the wells belonging to individuals are beyond the 
control and inspection of the school board or medical authori- 
ties. The well may be either driven with a sufficient depth 
to guarantee an abundance of pure water, or be a larger 
dug well. Ordinarily a driven well with a force pump set 
in a tight-fitting cement top is the safest, because there is 
less chance for defilement. 

The accompanying figure illustrates an arrangement to 
supply water for a drinking fountain. As Doctor Dresslar 
suggests, 1 " this will necessitate a good cement foundation 
about the pump and about the drinking fountain, ready 
means of carrying away the waste water, and such an attach- 
ment of the fountain to the pump that the pressure tank 
will be below the surface of the freezing line and also deep 
enough to keep the water cool in the summer." 

Figure 22 is a similar arrangement perfected for rural 
schools by President J. R. Kirk of Kirksville, Missouri. 
This is arranged for a drinking fountain within the school- 
house. By using a large pressure tank in place of the one 
shown here, lavatories, flush toilets, baths, laboratories, 
etc., could be installed. The waste pipe leading from the 
bottom of the drinking bowl follows the supply pipe straight 
downward to some point beneath the floor, where it can be 

^ Rural Schoolhouses and Grounds, p. 133. 



170 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



connected with an ordinary drain pipe or, if used for toilet 
purposes, with a simple septic sewer. Any rural school 
having a good well with a pump already installed, can make 



Fig. 




— Force pump supplying pressure (cylinder E) for drinking fountain. 
Reproduced from Dresslar's Rural Schoolhoiises and Grounds. 



the necessary attachments for drinking purposes for the 
trifling sum of $25 to $35. 

Some kind of fountain appears to be the only means of 
solving the question of safe water supply for drinking pur- 
poses. Theoretically individual drinking cups meet sanitary 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 



171 



requirements, but practically they do not always do so, as 
they are difficult to keep clean, to say nothing of the danger 
of getting cups exchanged and the temptation to use one 
another's cups. 

There are several satisfactory drinking fountains on the 
market now, ranging in price from $10 to $40. Where it is 



BUBBLING CUP 




Fig. 22. 



Scheme for supplying water and pressure for drinking fountain, 
perfected by President John R. Kirk. 



discussed 



impracticable to provide one of the systems 
above, such a fountain could be substituted. 

Sanitary Toilets Demanded under the New Standards. — 
Halfway measures should not be tolerated when it comes to 
toilet facilities for rural schools. No one problem in the 
school is fraught with more difficulty. And whatever of 
viciousness may crop out in the school can usually be traced 



172 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



to insanitary, indecent toilets. One cannot speak too em- 
phatically on this matter. Teachers too often neglect their 
duty to the children and the community by failing to insist 
upon sanitary toilets. The average person seldom realizes the 



Aufomatically 
clo/»nq Lid 



Connecfinq 
V,pz ^ 



.■^SSSSSXsSS^ 



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EfPLOfc/tT.TA/IK 



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Fig. 23. — The "L. R. S. Priv>'" in its simplest form, showing the 
liquefjing and effluent tanks. 



extent to which this neglect has been carried. Investiga- 
tions by health authorities in many states have disclosed 
that rural school toilets are often a disgrace as well as a 
menace to public health. Doctor Dresslar, by way of 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 



173 



illustration, quotes these figures in his Rural Schoolhouses 
and Grounds. In 631 out of 1232 rural schools examined or 
reporting, the toilets were adjudged insanitary. In 3572 
rural schools inspected by the Pennsylvania State Board 
of Health at least 50 per cent of the toilets were found to be 



Varadt. Line 



formTil* 1 I _ 




• ' " ■ -"^^"'"^ f 



Fig. 24. — Sectional view of a satisfactory septic system constructed 
by the Kentucky State Board of Health. 

insanitary. Similar conditions prevail in other sections 
of the country. 

National, state, and local medical authorities have begun 
a consistent campaign to eliminate this form of public 
nuisance. The United States Public Health Service has per- 
fected several forms of sanitary toilets now before the public 
through pamphlets and public demonstrations. The most 
effective is the so-called " L. R. S. privy " (devised by 
Doctors Lumsden, Roberts, and Stiles). It is a septic- tank 



174 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

disposal system and may be seen in its simplest form in 
figure 21. For a detailed study of this inexpensive system 
the teacher is referred to the bulletins of the United States 
Health Service. 

The septic system described above is a great improve- 
ment on the old dry-closets generally in use ; but the ideal 
system, after all, is the flush-tank system which should be 
installed wherever water pressure is available. A simple 
pressure tank set in the basement, or buried in the ground 
outside the building, can be attached to the well pump as 
indicated above in figure 22. The tank should measure 
about 200 gallons to a 30-pupil school, grading up or down 
according to requirements. Such water systems have been 
installed in many modern farm homes, so why not also in 
standardized modern schools? 

Question Studies from the Text 

Distinguish between a "one-room" school and a modern "one-teacher" 
school — both as regards physical plant and educational accomplish- 
ments. 

Wherein does the average one -room school fall short of meeting the 
needs of an average agricultural community? 

Do you know any rural teacher of the Brown Mouse type? If so, 
tell the teacher's story. 

Enumerate the salient features of Mrs. Marie Turner Harvey's school. 
Could not many more teachers do what this teacher has done ? 

What have you settled upon this year for home and school project 
work ? Would a movable school or agriculture short course be practicable ? 

Explain the significance to the community of having vacation school 
activities similar to those in the Porter School. 

Discuss the requirements for standardization of rural schools in 
Illinois ; in Oregon ; in Alabama ; in Pennsylvania. 

Does your own school come under any such accepted standard? If 
so, how does it satisfy you? How does it satisfy the patrons? 

What are the essential factors in the author's plan of standardization ? 

Give your views on the subject of teachers' cottages. 



THE REDIRECTED ONE-TEACHER SCHOOL 175 

Special Studies 

Read Herbert Quick's Brown Mouse and report to the class. 

Prepare a special study on Teachers' Cottages. See Preston's Teachers' 
Cottages in Washington, and Teachers' Cottages prepared by the American 
Lumber Association for free distribution by the United States Bureau of 
Education. 

Read " School Buildings and Grounds," Foght's Rural Denmark, Chap- 
ter VHL 

Make a report on one of the following topics from Dresslar's Rural 
Schoolhouses and Grounds: (i) Sanitary and Convenient Water Supply for 
Country Schools; (2) Sanitary Privies for Rural Schools; and (3) 
Health Program for Rural Children. 



CHAPTER IV 
Coming of the Real Rural Community School 

Modern Rural Life Demands a Thorough Reorganiza- 
tion of the Old-Time Schools. — The great national in- 
dustrial transition going on round about us is forcing upon 
the country — whether it will or not — a reorganization 
of the educational system. The requirements for success 
under modern commercial agriculture are as varied and 
different from the old-time hit and miss methods of land 
tilling as are the implements of this — the modern grain 
harvester and steam thresher — different from the tools 
of that — the hand cradle and the flail. To perpetuate 
the pioneer school would be to meet the educational prob- 
lems of world-wide commercial agriculture with the edu- 
cational equipment of the day of the hand cradle and the 
flail. If people would give these facts more serious thought, 
the work of educational reorganization would probably 
meet with less opposition from the unthinking. 

An educational process is needed which can reach clear 
down to the roots of things, strengthening character, and 
teaching the rights of fellow men, loyalty to the state, and 
fear of God, even while it supplies the youth and old people, 
without distinction, with practical training for bread-win- 
ning on the God-given land. Such requirements are be- 
yond all but the exceptional one-teacher schools, which must 
always continue a part of the school system where a larger 
reorganization is out of the question. The real solution, 

176 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 177 

however, lies with a new type of school — the consolidated 
farm community school. 

Reorganization through Modern Centralization. — There 
is nothing forced or artificial about the movement to cen- 
tralize, or consolidate, the small schools now in process of 
realization throughout the United States. It is indeed the 
most natural kind of movement. It began in Massachusetts 
as long ago as 1869 because it appeared to be the only prac- 
tical solution of a perplexing problem. The movement has 
since then spread contemporaneously from hundreds of 
centers far removed from each other and has taken on a 
great variety of forms, though the impulse back of it all has 
ever been the same — necessity or at least a desire to pro- 
vide time-serving educational facilities in a practical, busi- 
nesslike way instead of the outworn and ineffective. 

Brief History of School Consolidation. — The movement 
is too well known to require a lengthy historical sketch. 
Books and pamphlets in large number have been written 
on the subject,^ which give, in detail, the stock arguments 
for and against consolidation. Most of these may be 
passed by, as the experimental stage in school consolidation 
has long been passed. The movement is now, in fact, ac- 
cepted as good national policy. What school people must 
concern themselves with, is that the new school shall come 
to the community in its best form — otherwise the old 
schools had better been left as they were. But, first, it is 
desirable to note historically the encouraging growth of 
consolidation. 

There are probably 10,500 consolidated schools In the 
United States, deserving the name. A mere union of 
several schools making of them a larger one-teacher school 
is not considered as falling within the definition. It con- 

^ See Bibliography for the best available material on this subject. 



178 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

templates the union of several — preferably three or more 
— schools, to provide the facilities of a well-graded school. 
To say that 50,000 one-room schools have been absorbed 
by the new schools is not to overstate the facts. It is easy 
to see what this leavening must mean to the 212,000 small 
schools still untouched by the movement. 

Massachusetts passed a law authorizing consolidation of 
schools as early as 1865, and four years later added efficiency 
to this step by enacting another law providing for the con- 
veyance of school children at public expense. The first 
school to take advantage of this provision was the town 
(township) of Quincy, in 1874. Perhaps the first successful 
experiment at consolidation in the state was the three-school 
consolidation in Montague, in 1875. The largest early 
experiment of this kind in the state was in the town of 
Concord, the twelve schools of which united as one strong 
central school in the course of the years 1 870-1 880. Since 
then schools have been consolidated wherever practicable. 
The great increase in conveying children to school at public 
expense in Massachusetts may be observed in the growing 
annual expenditure for this purpose. This amount was 
$22,118.38 in 1888 and $384,149 in 1912, and fully $400,000 
in 1915. 

The example set by Massachusetts was in time followed 
by all the rest of New England. Connecticut began con- 
solidation in a small way in 1889. The other states fell in 
line somewhat later and are making considerable progress in 
spite of topographical and other difficulties which conspire 
to discourage the movement in this section of the country. 

The Middle West and West. — From Massachusetts the 
new plan of school organization spread westward and south- 
ward, until consolidation, in some form, is now practiced 
in every state. It is an outstanding fact that consolidation 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 179 

has been most successful in states with large administrative 
school units. The small intrenched district unit has always 
been a hindrance to consolidation, as shown elsewhere in 
the book. 

In the Middle West, Ohio, Indiana, and North Dakota 
have made marked progress because these states are or- 
ganized on the township plan — in North Dakota, in all 
except five counties. Similarly, the Southern States that 
have shown the greatest progress are organized on the 
county plan. 

Ohio consolidated its first schools at Kingsville, Ash- 
tabula County, in 1882. Now the state has more than 
four hundred such schools, many serving entire townships. 
Indiana has unquestionably the most satisfactory system 
of consolidation to be found anywhere. Consolidation laws 
are very effective here. No school, for example, is per- 
mitted to run with less than twelve pupils. All such are 
closed and the children conveyed elsewhere at public ex- 
pense. The township high schools have had a remarkable 
growth, which is quite natural in a township unit state. 
In 1912, there were 589 consolidated schools in Indiana; 
in 1 91 6 this number had reached nearly seven hundred. 

Of the district unit states that have attained good results 
in consolidation, may be mentioned Minnesota, Iowa, 
Missouri, and Washington. But it should be noted that 
this progress is wholly due to liberal state aid measures. 
The great state of Illinois, on the other hand, offers no such 
inducements to its small districts, with the expected result 
that its consolidated schools can be counted on one's 
fingers. 

Utah changed to the unconditional county unit plan in 
191 5, and boasts having consolidated all its rural schools 
— there being at this writing not more than a hundred of 



i8o THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

one-teacher schools in the state. CaHfornia is liberal with 
its school expenditure, and has organized many fine con- 
solidated schools, among them a number of great agricul- 
tural high schools. 

Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona have some notable 
consolidated graded and high schools in the irrigated belts. 
Nebraska emphasizes particularly its strong rural high 
schools. Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas are making some 
progress, particularly so in the last-mentioned state, where 
consolidation is comparatively new. 

In the South. — Nowhere in our country has this form of 
school reorganization meant more for school progress than 
in the Southern States. Public school systems are of more 
recent origin in this section. The white population is com- 
paratively sparse, and the natural resources are not yet fully 
developed. To this must be added the heavy burden of 
a double school system — one for the white population, 
another for the colored. But with all this, school education 
in the South rests more seriously on the minds of public- 
spirited men and women than in almost any other section 
of the country. It has become a patriotic motive to many 
— and the new plans for school centralization have offered 
avenues along which to realize these hopes and needs. 

Consolidation has been brought about in a variety of 
ways. Some of the Southern States emphasize county high 
schools, others agricultural high schools, still others a com- 
bination of the graded elementary schools and high schools. 
Tennessee, since its adoption of the county unit, has made 
remarkable headway in establishing consolidated schools 
equipped with experiment farms and homes for the teachers. 
North Carolina is doing as much under the name of farm life 
schools, and Virginia, under the name of rural high schools. 
Of all this group of states, Louisiana has perhaps accom- 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL i8i 

plished the greatest results. This is directly due to the cen- 
tralized parish (county) unit organization.^ 

It is now time to consider the important types of school 
consolidation. These are discussed below as, (i) associated 
schools, (2) partially consolidated schools, (3) complete 
consolidations, (4) village consolidation, and open country 
consolidation. 

Associated Schools, or Schools of the Trading Center. — 
In many communities the common practice of consolidating 
small rural schools into strong central plants is objected to 
as doing violence to time-honored ideals and traditions. 
Because of this feeling, the weak, one-teacher schools have, 
in many places, continued to persist in the face of repeated 
efforts at consolidation. The proposed remedy has seemed 
too radical and has been voted down. 

Minnesota has worked out a compromise that has proved 
satisfactory in most instances. This is the so-called asso- 
ciated schools, or schools of the trading center. 

A rural trading center, speaking generally, embraces the 
central village, with its various emporiums of trade and ex- 
change, and all the surrounding country that can con- 
veniently use the village as a clearing-house for its agricul- 
tural products and as a social recreation center. The schools 
of such an area, including the central village school and 
some or all of the outlying rural schools, may by law as- 
sociate themselves for mutual educational purposes. The 
striking feature of this system is, as already indicated else- 
where, that all the districts that enter into the association 
retain their independent organization for local purposes, 
including the general control of the home school. At the 

^ For a complete survey of the consolidation movement in the United States 
and Canada, see Bulletin 1914, No. 30, U. S. Bureau of Education, by A. C. Mona- 
han. 



i82 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

same time they become merged into one large district — 
the associated district — for all matters of common educa- 
tional interest. The school officers of all the associated 
districts, three members from each, form a board with 
authority to levy a special tax for associated purposes. In 
addition to this there is formed an associated board com- 
prising the six members of the village board and one member 
each from the associated districts. The duty of this board 
is to manage the affairs of common interest, such as dis- 
bursing the funds voted by the larger board and employing 
the special instructors in industrial subjects provided by law. 

General Advantages of School Association. — The Minne- 
sota system provides adequate supervision for all the rural 
schools, since the superintendent is charged with responsi- 
bility for all the work done in the associated schools. The 
industrial teachers are employed by the associated board 
for all the schools, and while their work centers in the village 
high or graded school they must direct the industrial sub- 
jects in all the schools. 

Such a system when fully developed embraces many 
activities, all directed from the central school. It may 
include: (i) The central school, having the usual eight 
grades and a four-year high school ; (2) as many locally 
independent schools as there are districts in the associa- 
tion ; (3) well-organized industrial courses, including a 
variety of short courses ; (4) an experimental plat or farm 
of five or more acres ; (5) agricultural extension work, 
usually in conjunction with the State College of Agriculture 
extension division ; and a local training school for rural 
teachers. 

This kind of organization makes possible a real com- 
munity school. It goes far beyond ordinary schoolroom 
practices and utilizes all the great out-of-doors. It com- 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 183 

bines the resources of town and country to the end of 
harmonizing townfolk and country folk, enabhng them to 
reaHze that they are members of one common body who 
must work together in harmony to mutual ends. 

The Spring Valley, Minnesota, Associated Schools, a 
Concrete Illustration. — Spring Valley is a village of two 
thousand people, situated in a rich farming community 
in the southeastern part of the state. The people are noted 
for thrift and conservatism. In spite of the latter, the past 
few years have seen marked changes in the system, espe- 
cially so since the adoption of the policy of association, which, 
according to Supt. F. E. Maxon, who was instrumental in 
organizing the system, has wrought great things both for 
the town and near-by country. 

Central School and Farm. — A modern high-school 
building was erected four years ago and equipped for in- 
dustrial work — agriculture, manual training, and household 
economics. This enabled the school to draw annual state 
aid of $2500 under the association act. At the present 
time three large rooms are used exclusively for agriculture 
work, two large rooms contain the manual training and forge 
work, and two are equipped for domestic science. It is 
interesting to note that of the two hundred students of 
high-school grade pursuing the industrial subjects more 
than fifty per cent are from the associated rural districts. 
This speaks volumes for the influence of the system in 
keeping the rural children in the small schools and " point- 
ing " them for the central school. 

The school maintains a farm of sixteen acres in a high 
state of cultivation. The produce from this farm has, 
year by year, sold for more than enough to pay all running 
expenses. All agriculture students are expected to learn 
the practical phases of the subject, doing work on the farm. 



i84 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



Beginnings of Association. — In 191 1, twenty rural dis- 
tricts were invited to associate with the central district for 
industrial purposes under the so-called Putnam Act. Four- 
teen districts voted for association, seven by unanimous 
vote. No district has ever expressed a desire to withdraw 




_n 



n_j 



Fig. 25. — The Chatfield, Minnesota, Associated School District. Plere eleven outlying 
districts have associated themselves for educational purposes with the Chatfield district. 

from the association, and others which at first refused to 
enter have made request for admission. 

Work of Supervision and Cooperation. — The superin- 
tendent makes an effort to reach each school at work and 
consult the teacher about the general school work. Regular 
reports are expected from all rural teachers, and from time 
to time they are called to the central school to consult with 
the industrial teachers. The latter also make regular 
rounds of the outlying schools and send each teacher type- 
written lesson-guides for the daily industrial work. 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 185 

Each district is provided with uniform textbooks and 
school equipment at cost. This means uniformity and 
great saving. So well has the plan worked that non- 
associated districts are seeking to get their books and 
equipment through the office of the association. In all 
schools where there are two or more boys over ten years 
of age a double bench and sets of tools are placed — pro- 
viding the district agrees to pay for the lumber used. The 
benches and tools remain the property of the association 
and can be transferred from one school to another according 
to the need. Likewise, w^here there are two or more girls 
old enough, and the board agrees to furnish the supplies, 
a two-burner kerosene stove, oven, and complete cooking 
outfit are placed in each rural school making the formal 
request. 

Rural Pupils at the Ce^ttral School. — During three 
months in the fall and two in the spring, pupils ten years 
of age and over spend Friday afternoon of each week at the 
central school, engaged in industrial study. The agricul- 
ture teacher meets all the pupils for forty minutes in agri- 
culture work ; after this the boys spend a second hour in 
the manual training shop under the direction of the manual 
training instructor, while the girls are at work in the do- 
mestic science rooms. The work begun on Friday after- 
noon at the central school is expected to be continued 
throughout the week in the home school, and to be ready 
for report at the next Friday meeting. 

The Short Courses. — The first of these is a three months' 
course, open to young men and women above fifteen years 
of age. During the past year thirty-three students took 
advantage of the course, almost all of them coming from the 
open country. Instruction is given in English, farm arith- 
metic and accounts, civil government, farm sanitation, 



1 86 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

agriculture, cooking, sewing, carpentry, forge work, spell- 
ing, and penmanship. 

A junior short course and contest Is also an annual 
feature. At this, liberal prizes are awarded for various 
exhibits, among which the corn exhibits usually take first 
place. Special prizes are also offered for the best displays 
from the rural schools. The local commercial club holds 
a well-patronized market day while the junior short course 
is in session. 

The Agricultural Instructor the Local Farm Adviser. — 
The instructor who has charge of agriculture and the school 
farm acts as adviser to the entire farming community. 
He holds himself in readiness to plan farm buildings and 
silos, and often drives long distances into the country to 
instruct in types of dairy and beef cattle, hogs and sheep, 
and in a thousand and one ways assists in bettering agri- 
cultural conditions. 

Such, in brief, is the story of the Minnesota associated 
schools. Other states, and notably Washington, utilize 
the same idea, but less completely worked out.^ 

Partial Consolidation. — Communities of the conservative 
kind often compromise the matter by closing only certain 
ones of the small schools within the consolidated area, or by 
retaining the small schools for the pupils in the lower grades. 
Where people object to parting with the time-honored one- 
room school, or fear to have the younger children conveyed 
to a central school several miles from home, this plan proves 
satisfactory, or is, at least, a first step towards complete 
consolidation. 

This kind of consolidation is being practiced in many 
states, notably in the more conservative. In Missouri, for 

^ For a complete statement of the associated schools, see Bulletin 1915, No. 20, 
U. S. Bureau of Education, by H. W. Foght. 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 187 

example, a recent legislative enactment permits both this 
and complete consolidation. Before the new law went 
into effect it was practically impossible to get the people 
to consolidate their schools. Now it is a comparatively 
easy matter. Under the new law it is common to consoli- 
date a number of small districts, say from four to six or 
even more, and send all the children above the fifth or 
sixth year to a school erected at a strategic center. This 
organization provides good grammar school and high school 
facilities for the older pupils, at the same time that it allows 
the teachers retaining the younger children to do their 
tasks better than formerly by reason of the smaller number 
of classes. 

Another important fact is this, that the partial system 
— which is really more expensive than complete consolida- 
tion — prepares the way for the latter. Once the farm 
folk of the community have become habituated to gather 
at the large central school for their community meetings, 
the smaller schools begin to lose their significance, and are 
closed one by one. 

Complete Consolidation. — As indicated in the name, 
this contemplates centralization of all the small schools 
of the consolidated district at a central point. This affords 
opportunity to grade the school thoroughly, and, if enough 
small districts have joined, to organize a real community 
high school. 

In this form consolidation reaches the ideal. Here it 
can get sufficient funds to provide trained teachers, good 
equipment, and ample land for laboratory purposes. The 
ideal consolidated school is organized preferably in the 
open country or on the edge of a rural-minded village. In 
architecture it is as modern as the best town school. The 
children's health is considered in the sanitary arrangements. 



1 88 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Proper lighting, correct heating and ventilation, flowing 
water, and indoor toilets are all given careful consideration. 
There is provision for agricultural and general science lab- 
oratories. The assembly hall is arranged with a view to 
using it for all kinds of community gatherings. 

The course of study continues to give the universal ele- 
ments of education first place, as in the past ; but it gives, 
in addition, a new emphasis to local community needs. 
Nature study, agriculture, domestic science, manual train- 
ing, music, and even art are finding prominent place in the 
day's work, while all the old subjects are taking on more 
and more of a '* farm flavor." The fundamental principles 
remain the same, but the local application is directed to the 
needs of the agricultural community. 

All the school work is not done indoors, however. The 
school is set in a large outdoor laboratory. This should 
never be less than five acres. Many schools have grounds 
and experimental plats ranging from twenty to sixty-five 
acres. Here is room for play and athletic grounds, for 
parking, individual gardens, experimental plats, and larger 
fields and orchards. It stands to proof that the most 
practical schools of this kind, so far as local application is 
concerned, give the most thoroughgoing instruction in 
the general cultural elements, language, literature, history, 
etc. It is quite feasible to combine the education of the 
great out-of-doors with indoor study so as to bring about a 
satisfactory coordination of head, heart, and hand. 

The Consolidated School at RoUo, Illinois, Typical of 
Complete Consolidation. — The significance of this kind 
of school can best be shown through typical illustration. 
The one here given has resulted from consolidating the 
seven small schools of Paw Paw Township, De Kalb County, 
Illinois. The school is placed in a working laboratory of 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 189 

twenty-six acres. This is laid off as ornamental parking, 
with shrubbery and trees, playgrounds, and athletic field, 
individual gardens, experimental plats, and school fields. 
The main building is an attractive two-story and basement 
brick and terra-cotta structure, which was built and equipped 
at a cost of $30,000. It has every convenience that can be 
found in a city school. A pressure-tank system provides 
flowing water in abundance, thereby making it practicable 
to have indoor toilets, baths, drinking fountains, etc. The 
school is steam heated, and lighted with gas generated on 
the premises. 

The school is in charge of six professionally-prepared 
teachers. It offers a well-organized course of work for the 
eight grades, and a strong four-year high-school course. 
The laboratory equipment for physics, chemistry, and agri- 
culture is very complete. Worthy, also, is the school 
library of 1500 bound volumes and many pamphlets. 

The community has recognized the value of the teacher 
as a factor in permanent community life by erecting, on 
the campus, a beautiful modern home, at a cost of nearly 
$10,000. The home is directed by a housekeeper, who has 
full charge of boarding and lodging the teachers, none of 
whom happens to be married. All modern conveniences 
are provided. The teachers of the school are unanimous 
in their statement that they much prefer life in the Rollo 
community to teaching — as several had formerly done — 
in the town schools. 

The Rollo School enrolls a large number of sturdy farm 
youth, such as are seldom found in the one- teacher schools 
near by. This alone speaks volumes for consolidation. 
These children are well-organized in their play life, having 
their baseball, basket ball, and tennis teams. A thriving 
athletic association has charge of all these activities. 



IQO THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The entire student body is organized as an active Lit- 
erary Society. Sixty of the students have organized an 
Audubon Society, for the study and protection of birds. 
The home is brought into closest touch with the school by 
means of granting credits for home work. At the close of 
each week the parents hand in industrial cards which state 
the amount and nature of the children's home work. School 
credits are granted for all worthy work of this kind. Three 
things are stressed by the school : (i) home work, (2) regu- 
larity of school attendance, and (3) high grade of class 
work. 

The school does not limit its activities to the school 
premises. Neighborhood orchards are pruned and sprayed 
by the advanced pupils. Milk cows are tested for tuber- 
culosis. So successful has the senior agriculture class been 
in its work of assisting the stock feeders of Paw Paw Town- 
ship, that many of these have the agriculture teacher and 
his class ' ' top off ' ' the fattening steers during the last week 
or so before marketing. This and much similar work has 
become part of the regular routine, and has made the school 
indispensable in the new agricultural evolution. 

To have part in the activities of such a school is an in- 
spiration in itself. Instead of the customary round of 
twenty-five or thirty-five classes daily, there is a carefully 
arranged program of few classes. The very force of num- 
bers adds to the social attractiveness of the school. An 
abundance of social-center interests will keep the teachers 
contented and happy in their work. Such schools are 
beginning to help professionalize rural teachers by offering 
abundant inducements for thorough preparation and con- 
tinued improvement. 

Open Country vs. Village Consolidation. — It is not out 
of place at this juncture to impress on the teacher the im- 




Two Illustrations from Tennessee Which Tell the Story of the New Farm 
Community School 

The main building of the Carter consaUdated grade and high school, Knox County, 
erected at a cost of Si 5,000. The teacherage at the Belle Morris School, erected at 
the cost of $1000. Ten similar cottages were erected in Knox County durmg the year. 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 191 

portance of the place where the consoHdation ought to be 
made. Shall it be in the open country, or in town — which ? 

The Rollo School lies in the open country. At the same 
time, many of the best consolidated schools are built on the 
edge of some rural-minded village. Location means much, 
but is not the only factor to be considered. The writer 
has found some of the poorest consolidated schools im- 
aginable in the open country — in spite of the ideal environ- 
ment — because the teachers and patrons responsible for 
them had no conception of their own needs. The schools 
in question had aped the town schools and borrowed their 
entire course of study from Latin to solid geometry. Such 
a wholesale moving out of town schools can never save the 
open country. 

It is safe to say that successful consolidated schools may 
be organized in or near rural-minded villages ; but no con- 
solidated school should ever be built in city-minded places 
— this is sure to work irreparable loss to rural people. 

Some Ideals for Which to Strive. — A fatal mistake in 
much consolidation is its appeal to the cheap and shoddy. 
If this great work is worth doing at all, it is worth doing 
well. Where a community contemplates consolidation, 
its advocates should strive with might and main toward 
the highest ideals in school perfection. Here are some 
of the things to be considered : 

The grounds chosen, aside from being centrally located 
and easily accessible, should be sightly, well-drained, and 
large — so large, indeed, as to afford room for good-sized 
experiment plots, school gardens, playgrounds, lawn, and 
ample space for buildings. Five acres and upward should 
be the standard. 

The school structure should be built as a permanent 
farm school plant, have a large assembly room, well-equipped 



192 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



classrooms, and agricultural laboratories, be sanitary, at- 
tractive, and in every way as good as the best town school 
plant. No steps should be taken towards building until 



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Wa^-Z^r>a Trough 



V V o u i^ a 



X537 



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A<C 



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tf c? e tf Of?';; 



Fora.y^ Trae-y 



£xper/menfaf Farm 
S.Acrey 



Fig. 26. — Grounds of a rural cDmmunity school measuring ten acres. Attention is 
called to the water system which supplies both the school and teacher's cottage. (From 
Dresslar's Rural Schoolhouses and Grounds.) 



after consulting with educational experts, and then plans 
and specifications should be prepared by a competent 
architect. 



COMING OF THE REAL RURAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL 193 

The grounds should have a good shed for teams and 
wagons. 

A principaVs cottage should be erected on every con- 
solidated school ground. To this end one of the best of 
the discarded schoolhouses may be moved in and remodeled. 
The district will get a monthly rental upon this property. 
Many states have found this an excellent investment. It 
is well to repeat again that the teacher who lives his life 
in the midst of the community from year to year, becomes 
a positive factor in community building. 

Question Studies from the Text 

Demonstrate, once again, the futility of the one-room school as a factor 
in modern agricultural life. 

Give a brief sketch of school consolidation in the United States. 

Why has the movement been slow in some of the rich Middle Western 
States, while great progress has been made in many Southern States? 

Review again county unit organization in relation to consolidation. 

Point out the significance of "trading-center" schools in fostering a 
proper cooperation between town and country life. 

Why is partial consolidation practiced in conservative communities? 

Discuss open country consolidation vs. town consolidation. 

Outline your own ideal of what a consolidated school ought to be. 

Special Studies 

Make a detailed study of one of the following topics : 

1 . Role of tradition in consolidation ; 

2. Good roads and consolidation; 

3. Effect of consolidation on land values. 

If possible, "survey" a consolidated school community and report 
results. 

Report on Monahan's or Knorr's study of consolidation. (See bibliog- 
raphy.) 



CHAPTER V 
Rural High Schools 

Little Need to Treat Rural High Schools as a Separate 
Subject. — It is difficult to discuss school consolidation 
without laying emphasis on the high school facilities open 
to rural children through this channel. There would be 
little need to give a special chapter to the rural high school, 
were it not for the growing conviction that this is the school 
of schools for the rural youth, which can provide both the 
culture and the practical preparation for farm life. 

The well-organized rural high school with its good equip- 
ment in land and buildings, and homes for the teachers, is 
gradually taking its place in rural districts as the '' agri- 
cultural man's college." Its task is to point the way to 
contented, remunerative community life. This institution, 
where fully organized, extends its educational facilities to 
young and old 'people alike, — to the children in regular 
day courses ; to the youth beyond ordinary school age, and 
to the parents, in short courses and extension courses, and 
even occasional night sessions. The new conception of 
the rural high school is an institution that combines the 
broad cultural elements of the Danish Folk High Schools 
with the practical elements of the Danish Agricultural 
Schools, to the end of making the students both thinkers 
and doers. 

Evolution of the American High School. — In colonial 
days, academies sprang up in the towns as schools for the 

194 



RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS 195 

select. They became feeders for Harvard and Yale and 
Princeton and other early-day colleges. They were, of 
course, classical institutions with little sympathy for any- 
thing but ancient language, philosophy, history, and mathe- 
matics. The more democratic high schools came into 
being cotemporaneously with the organization of the new 
state universities, about half a century ago. These public 
secondary schools have generally supplanted the academies. 
They have always been closer to the mass of the people 
than the older select schools ; but, unfortunately, in organ- 
ization and purpose they have been limited mostly to the 
towns and cities. Until very recently the high schools have 
been little else than preparatory schools for the university 
which has controlled their courses of study, entrance re- 
quirements, and general policy. 

The last decade has worked great changes in the American 
town high school. The public has demanded of the school 
an education preparing the children for immediate life 
pursuits as well as for college. Definite vocational courses 
preparing for a number of occupations have been the answer. 
But rural folk have received little consideration in the plan- 
ning of the town high schools, which is probably just as 
well, since a high school for an urban population is and 
must remain a different institution from a high school for 
rural people. 

The Rural High School Organized to Meet Modern 
Agricultural Demands. — As stated above, the early sys- 
tem of high schools did not embrace rural districts. They 
were planned for an urban population, and offered such 
studies as urban children were supposed to need. In rura) 
districts the one-teacher school continued as the only school 
for all the children ; or they might go to town to high school, 
with disastrous results for their future as agricultural people. 



196 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

City high schools are organized for city children ; simi- 
larly, rural high schools must be organized for rural chil- 
dren. Some people — farmers among them — have the 
false notion that to differentiate between urban and rural 
folk in educational matters amounts to a discrimination 
in favor of city children, and that the whole matter is an 
attempt to set up an agricultural caste and cut off rural 
children from the supposedly greater opportunities of city 
life. The whole is based on the assumption that urban 
life is superior to rural life, which to thinking persons 
must seem utterly fallacious. There is fundamentally no 
more reason why rural children should attend town schools 
than to reverse the order and have city children attend 
school under the benign influence of a rural environment. 
The Danish folk high schools, it may be recalled, are rural 
high schools, and seven per cent of their students come out 
from the towns. As soon as American rural life shall have 
become fully readjusted this problem will settle itself. 

The rural high school course of study must be as broadly 
cultural as any planned for the urban population — a cul- 
ture intimately related to present and future problems, 
rather than to old traditions. But, most important of all, 
the course of study must be rooted to the agricultural com- 
munity, to the earth, as source and background both. 

The New Course of Study Exemplified in the North 
Carolina Farm-Life Schools. — Several thousand high 
schools in our country, mostly situated in towns and villages, 
have sought to meet the new demands from rural folk by 
offering agriculture as an elective subject. A few schools 
have gone a step farther, and require a minimum amount 
of agriculture for graduation in certain courses. All these 
agriculture courses are valuable from the standpoint of 
general culture and as practical attainment ; but they 



RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS 



197 



must necessarily remain as something apart from the real 
purpose of the urban course of study, as something super- 
imposed and lacking the vital elements attainable only 
when taught in relation to its natural background — the 
land. 

We have compromised in these matters long enough. Agri- 
culture must no longer be taught as a patch on an old gar- 
ment, but as the warp and woof of a new garment. In 
other words, the rural high school course must have its 
root in the new agricultural sciences, and not in the old 
traditional studies. Dead languages have no place in the 
new course ; the mother tongue, on the other hand, holds 
important place. Pure science is largely abandoned and 
the applied forms have taken its place. The thought 
permeating the new educational scheme is, that it is of 
more value to the future agriculturist to have a thorough 
knowledge of corn roots and grass roots than to be familiar 
with Latin roots and Greek roots — highly desirable though 
the latter may be. 

The new interpretation is well made in the four-year 
course of study, suggested by the North Carolina State 
Department of Education for its new Farm-Life Schools : 

First Year 



First Semester 

English .... 
Arithmetic . . 
Physical Geography 
Plant Life . . . 
Mechanical Drawing 
Farm Carpentry . 
Total .... 



Periods per Week 
Class Lab. 



Parallel Reading Course : General Science 



Second Semester 



Periods per Week 
Class Lab. 



24. Periods 



EngHsh 5 

Arithmetic .... 5 

Poultry 31 

Plant Culture ...31 
Mechanical Drawing . 2 
Farm Carpentry . . . 2_ 



Total 22 Periods 



198 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



Second Year 



First Semester 



Periods per Week 
Class Lab. 



Second Semester 



Periods per Week 



Class Lab. 



English . _ 5 

Mathematics .... 5 

History 3 

Farm Animals ... 3 

Biology and Physiology 3 

Vegetable Gardening . 2 



English 5 

Algebra 5 

History 3 

Dairying . . . . .3 
Biology and Physiology 3 
Vegetable Gardening . ^ 



Total 23 Periods Total 23 Periods 

Parallel Reading Course : A study of the social life in the country and 
organization of boys' and girls' clubs. 



Third Year 



First Semester 



Periods per Week 
Class Lab. 



Second Semester 



English 5 

Physics 3 

History 3 

Farm Crops .... 3 
Farm Accounting and 

Mathematics ... 3 

Farm Carpentry . . . 



English . . 
Physics . . 
History . . 
Farm Crops 
Fruit Culture 
Farm Carpentry 



Periods per Week 
Class Lab. 

5 
3 
3 

3 I 

3 I 

2 



Total 20 Periods Total 21 Periods 

Parallel Reading Course : Rural Sanitation and Water Supply. 



Fourth Year 



First Semester 



Periods per Week 
Class Lab. 



English 5 



Soils and Fertilizers 
Rural Economics 
Feeds and Feeding 
Farm Machinery 
Chemistry . . . 
Total .... 



Second Semester 



Periods per Week 



>3 Periods 



Soils and Fertilizers 
Mathematics . . 
Feeds and Feeding 
Farm Machinery . 
Chemistry . . . 
Total .... 



Parallel Reading Course : Community Improvement. 



Class Lab. 



English 5 

3 
3 
3 
3 
3 



23 Periods 



RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS IQQ 

Rural High Schools in the South. — A discussion of the 
North Carolina course of study opens the subject of the 
present trend in high school education in the Southern 
States. 

The South has many problems bequeathed to it by a 
social and economic regime fast passing away. Its people 
are convinced that school education alone can achieve a 
solution of these difficulties. To establish good schools — 
elementary, secondary, and higher — within reach of all 
the people, has become a patriotic motive in many Southern 
States. Public taxation and private benevolence are in- 
voked to the cause. The old private secondary schools 
with their conventional studies are rapidly being sup- 
planted by high schools of a practical sort within the reach 
of all the people. 

Perhaps the General Education Board ^ should have credit 
for much .of what has been accomplished the last few years 
for secondary education, through its liberality in paying 
the salaries and expenses of the professors of secondary 
education established in connection with eleven Southern 
States ; and in appropriating funds for establishing high 
schools. On the other hand, this work would have been 
futile except for the stimulating propaganda long carried 
on by the Conference for Education in the South, the 
Southern Education Board, and the Peabody Board. 

Fear has been expressed that the new schools' may depart 
in their work too far from the good old-fashioned literary 
curricula ; for which there may be some foundation, as the 
pendulum of change is prone to swing from extreme to ex- 
treme. To reconcile the immediately practical with the 
broadly intellectual and spiritual is the great problem of 
Southern educators. 

^ See its Proceedings : The General Education Board, 1912-1914. 



200 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Agricultural life holds important place in the educational 
reorganization. Virginia appropriates annually large sums 
for agricultural and manual training departments in rural 
and town high schools ; Tennessee duplicates out of the 
State fund all local appropriations for the teaching of in- 
dustrial subjects to the amount of $1500 annually ; Georgia 
has created congressional district agricultural high schools, 
each with annual state appropriations of $10,000 ; Missis- 
sippi and several other states have county high schools ; 
and North Carolina, finally, has its county farm-life schools. 

North Carolina Farm-Life Schools. — County and even 
township high schools are often objected to in the Northern 
States because they draw the children too far from home, 
some of them being in reality boarding schools with dor- 
mitory plans. Let this be as it may, in the South the sparse 
population and the two races make this system often the 
only feasible one in practice. The North Carolina farm- 
life institutions are county schools — one, and in an ex- 
ceptional case two or more, to the county. The general 
county law provides for a special county election by which 
the community may bond itself to provide the necessary 
funds for buying a school farm and other equipment. After 
this has been done, bids for the location of the school are 
advertised. The school is then placed in that community 
within the county of a population not exceeding 1000 
which offers the largest financial aid for maintenance and 
equipment. The community getting the school is generally 
expected to provide some, if not all, the land for grounds 
and experiment farm and a large part of the funds for school 
buildings, including dormitory facilities, barns for stock, 
etc., at an outlay of from $15,000 to $25,000, and also to 
provide a maintenance fund of $2500 a year. On these 
conditions the state will supplement the maintenance fund 




Farm Life School in Craven County, North Carolina 

Building and group of students. This type of school offers educational oppor- 
tunities to the "grown-up" young people who are beyond elementary school age. 



RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS 201 

of the school by $2500 a year. The law provides further 
that in case a county bond election fails to carry, any town- 
ship or two or more contiguous townships may issue bonds 
for equipment and levy special tax for maintenance. 

The influence of the schools is already marked in North 
Carolina community life. They provide a practical train- 
ing in the problems and pursuits of everyday life. The 
courses of study are centered about scientific farming and 
home making. The teaching staffs of the schools promote 
a definite and vigorous extension work throughout the 
county, giving instruction to grown-up people as well. 
The trained experts of the faculty extend the influence of 
the school through demonstration work and by organizing 
adult clubs throughout the county. In a similar way, the 
teachers of the farm-life schools wield a progressive in- 
fluence over the general body of rural teachers. The 
teachers of the small rural and village schools meet for 
demonstration and instruction at the school farm and in 
the school laboratories. The head of the agricultural de- 
partment of the farm-life school is often the county super- 
visor of vocational subjects. 

Gonzales Union High School, California. — The West 
has many types of excellent rural high schools. No state 
is doing this educational work more thoroughly than is 
California. Gonzales Union High School, the story of which 
is told briefly in the next paragraph, does not lay claim to 
being among the largest and costliest of this group. It is, 
indeed, a small school ; but chosen for the present purpose 
because it meets admirably all the needs of its own section 
of Salinas County. 

The school is accredited to the State University ; but it 
has not permitted this to interfere with the development 
of a study course based on modern science. It utilizes in 



202 • THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

fullest measure the pupils' sense perception, and trains 
them " to see and hear correctly, to touch deftly and rapidly, 
and to draw the right inferences from the testimony of their 
senses." 

The motto of the half-hundred husky young men and 
women enrolled is, '' Learning by Doing." This is demon- 
strated vividly in their everyday work. The school is 
constructed on the open-air cottage plan surrounding a court 
planted to grass, flowers, and trees. The development of 
the school plant has rested almost wholly with the students. 
Recently the school acquired nine acres of land for experi- 
mental purposes. This is now being improved as one of 
the school tasks. The students assisted in removing some 
old buildings from the land and in other ways made it fit 
for cultivation. In their catalogue of activities are included 
many things : they have planted twelve hundred trees and 
a large number of shrubs ; they have planned and planted the 
lawns, and sown and harvested annually three or more acres 
of beans. They have laid out and improved a good-sized 
athletic field and built the grand stand. In a similar way 
the students have constructed a complete sewer system for 
the school, including two septic tanks, and laying and fitting 
the pipe. More recently, some of the young men have 
built a concrete swimming pool, one hundred by thirty 
feet in size. The water to this is supplied by an electric 
power-pump and all the overflow is utilized for irrigation 
purposes. 

Gonzales school has won high recognition in the state 
through its noted agriculture club. All high ranking con- 
testants of the past year spent three days at the Panama- 
Pacific Exposition and the University farm as the guests 
of the University of California. The club winner was sent 
on the annual trip to Washington, Boston, and other Eastern 



RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS 203 

cities, at the expense of his home community, which has 
already learned that $250 expended in such a cause is money 
well spent. 

Jordan Consolidated Rural High School, Utah. — This 
is a type of rural high school unique to Utah. The people 
of the state live largely in irrigated valleys, in homes clus- 
tered about the village churches and schools. The unirri- 
gated sections are barren and have little organized life. 
Accordingly, small one- teacher schools have never been 
numerous in the state. At the present time there are less 
than forty such schools left. Graded schools of high charac- 
ter are found in all the organized communities ; but, as many 
of them are too small to maintain well-organized high schools, 
a number of village centers find it convenient to maintain 
one central high school. It will be recalled that Utah has 
the county unit for school organization, which facilitates 
centralization of this kind. 

The Jordan Rural High School lies in the open country 
and draws its attendance from the dozen or more villages of 
the large Jordan High School district. The accompanying 
map shows the distribution of the village centers. The 
children are conveyed to school in transportation wagons, 
or come in their own vehicles or on horseback. 

The school plant forms quite a contrast with the inex- 
pensive, open-air plant of the California school described 
above. The main building was erected at a cost of $165,000, 
and when the plan is fully realized will reach an outlay of 
$200,000. It contains thirty spacious rooms, including 
laboratories and workrooms for agriculture, domestic science, 
manual training, and other industrial activities. Many of 
the school's interests center about a large auditorium, 
planned for a thousand people ; for this is a true com- 
munity school, intended for all the people. 



204 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 




RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS 205 

The grounds embrace twenty-three acres, devoted to 
agricultural experimentation and play activities. A small 
model dairy is operated in connection with the agricultural 
department. This reminds one of the local agricultural 
schools in Denmark, which provide similar practical facili- 
ties. A large area is equipped for games and athletics. 
An extensive parking, devoted to trees, shrubbery, and 
flowers, is now nearing completion. A neat little cottage 
has been erected at one corner of the grounds for the prin- 
cipal ; at another, is the home of the school agriculturist 
who is engaged the year round, as he has charge of the 
school farm and grounds. 

More than four hundred students are in school attendance, 
coming from villages at distances ranging from one to 
twelve miles ; but as the roads are good the distance traveled 
is of little consequence. The course of study forms a sen- 
sible blending of the cultural and practical elements. It 
is certain to produce thinkers and doers. 

Some idea of the subjects included may be got from the 
student registration for the year (i 914-15), which in- 
cludes music 147, sewing 116, cooking 78, science 117, 
mathematics 188, English 337, oral expression 78, stenog- 
raphy 15, typewriting 51, bookkeeping 60, German 52, 
history 45, review of common subjects 13, woodwork 118, 
sociology 32, drawing 24, agriculture 120, physical educa- 
tion 231. 

It is well to point out again that a school organization 
such as the Jordan High School would be practically im- 
possible of realization in other than county unit states. 
Instead of the forty or fifty board members that managed 
the group of villages formerly, a county board of five men 
now administers the affairs of all to the relief and satisfac- 
tion of all concerned. 



2o6 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Rural high schools afford a subject for fruitful discussion. 
However, the present chapter need not be unduly 
lengthened since several phases of high school work are 
treated in Chapter VI following, on Continuation Schools. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Distinguish between agricultural high schools and high schools with 
agricultural departments. 

What is meant by county high schools ? By township high schools ? 
What objections may be raised to them, if any ? 

Show, definitely, the importance of having the rural high schools meet 
modern agricultural needs. 

Contrast the kind of town high school often attended by country chil- 
dren with the new community school. 

Comment on the North Carolina farm-life school course of study. 
Would you add other subjects ? Would you teach algebra at all ? Why ? 

Tell the story of some one rural high School with which you are ac- 
quainted. 

What is remarkable about the organization of the Jordan Rural High 
School? 

What is usually the relation of consolidation and establishment of 
rural high schools ? 

Make a census of the boys and girls of high school age in your com- 
mimity (if rural) who are not in school attendance. 

Special Studies 

Study Elliot's Changes Needed in American Secondary Education, and 
make a report to the class. 

Discuss the salient features of Flexner's A Modern School. 

Make a careful study of Secondary Education in the 1902-14 Activities 
of the General Education Board. 

Study Brown's Readjustment of a Rural High School to the Needs of the 
Community (Bureau of Education Bulletin 191 2, No. 20). 

Note, — The three studies enumerated above can be procured free by address- 
ing the General Education Board, 61 Broadway, New York. 



CHAPTER VI 
Rural Continuation Schools and Extension Courses 

The Duty of Democracy to Educate All the People. — 

We have now seen the teachers at work in the modern one- 
teacher schools, in the well-organized consolidated schools, 
and in the rural high schools. There is yet another im- 
portant field of activity for these busy teachers which must 
be touched before we leave this part of the book. This is 
the important continuation school and school extension 
activities which are not classed with ordinarily accepted 
schoolroom practice. 

To educate all its people, without exception, is both the 
duty and the right of democracy. We have in the nation 
several million men and women who for one reason or 
another are illiterate. If these people have been deprived 
of educational opportunities in their youth, it is the duty 
of the nation to extend this blessing to them now in their 
years of maturity ; if they have neglected their earlier 
opportunities, democracy has the right to demand that they 
correct the deficiency with public assistance at once. 

There is another consideration entirely aside from these 
millions of adult illiterates. We find large numbers of 
young men and women in rural districts beyond ordinary 
school age who are obliged to work for a livelihood, and 
whose education has been so meager as to handicap them 
seriously in the struggle for a living. The same may be 
said of many of their parents, who grew up, perhaps, on 

207 



2o8 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

the frontier as pioneers with Httle opportunity for schooling. 
All these people should have opportunity to make up for 
what has been neglected. The new conception of educa- 
tion is so to organize the schools as to reach all the people 
who need inspiration and assistance to surmount the high 
and difficult places in life, and thereby extend to them the 
real blessings of a democratic government. 

These new tendencies in rural education may be dis- 
cussed under several distinct heads : 

1. Elimination of adult illiteracy; 

2. Continuation schools for people beyond ordinary 
school age; 

3. Part-time schools for people who must work for a 
livelihood ; 

4. Educational extension courses for young and old. 
Extent and Condition of Illiteracy in the United States. 

— When the Federal Census for the year 19 10 was taken, 
there were in the United States 5,516,163 persons ten years 
of age and over who could neither read nor write, including 
2,273,603 who were twenty-one years of age and over. 
" Of these illiterates, 3,184,633, or 58 per cent, were white 
persons (1,534,727, or 28 per cent, were native-born whites, 
and 1,650,361, or 30 per cent, were foreign-born whites), 
2,227,731, or 40 per cent, were negroes. The rest, two per 
cent, were Indians, Chinese, Japanese and others." ^ 

More than two-thirds of all the illiterates come from 
rural communities. These illiterates are not now limited 
to race or section of country. The colored illiteracy of 
the South is almost balanced by the ignorant aliens of the 
North ; and the illiteracy in the remote parts of the Southern 
mountain plateau is scarcely greater than the illiteracy in 
rural life in the Northern Appalachians. 

1 See U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin 1913, No. 20; also 1914, No. 22. 



RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 209 

This illiteracy is found very largely among persons above 
twenty years of age — men and women who cannot be 
expected to get their education in the ordinary school. 
The nation has had its choice between letting this genera- 
tion of illiterates continue to live and die in their ignorance 
at a fearful cost to national life, or to organize schools 
especially adapted to their needs, in which they might get 
the rudiments of learning, and, in addition, some inspiration 
to do better, some insight into the highest good in life, 
something to lift them out of the deadening materialism 
and indifference for country and their fellow men. The 
nation has made its choice wisely. Several states have 
already enacted laws to aid in blotting out all such illiteracy, 
and devoted men and women, both teachers and lay, have 
taken up the challenge and are at work with a devotion to 
duty that promises much for the ultimate elimination of 
adult illiteracy. 

Establishment of " Moonlight Schools." — Attempts have 
been made from time to time by church organizations and 
individuals to reach the adult illiterates in the several sec- 
tions where they prevail, and notably in the South Atlantic 
Highlands. Some of these undertakings have been abortive 
of results, and others have done great good in limited com- 
munities. It remained, however, to Mrs. Cora Wilson 
Stewart of Rowan County, Kentucky, to initiate the great 
movement known as " Moonlight Schools," which is in a 
fair way to eliminate adult illiteracy not alone in the moun- 
tain regions of the South, but elsewhere as well. 

This great movement began in 191 1. Mrs. Stewart, 
who was County Superintendent of Rowan County, was 
driven by the distressing conditions of illiteracy to find some 
way to help her people. She at last decided the most fea- 
sible plan to be to open night schools on moonlight evenings 



2IO THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

in the public schoolhouses over the county. The regular 
teachers all responded to the call and made their prepa- 
rations and issued their invitations. We read, '' It was 
expected that the response would be slow, but more than 
1200 men and women from i8 to 86 years of age were 
enrolled the first evening. They came trooping over the 
hills and out of the hollows, some to add to the meager 
education received in the inadequate schools of their child- 
hood, some to receive their first lessons in reading and 
writing. Among them were not only illiterate farmers and 
their illiterate wives, sons, and daughters, but also illiterate 
merchants or storekeepers, illiterate ministers, and illiterate 
lumbermen. Mothers, bent with age, came that they might 
learn to read letters from absent sons and daughters, and 
that they might learn for the first time to write to them." 

The remarkable experiment grew rapidly in popularity. 
In 1 912 the enrollment in Rowan County reached 1600, 
out of which number 350 learned to read and write. Mean- 
while similar schools were established in twenty-five other 
counties in the state with equally satisfactory results. The 
determined warfare against ignorance culminated in 19 14 
with the establishment, under law, of the Kentucky Illit- 
eracy Commission, with Mrs. Stewart as State Commissioner. 
In this more influential position she has set for herself and 
her thousands of associates — the Kentucky teachers and 
other public-spirited men and women — the task of blotting 
out illiteracy before the time of the next Federal Census, 
in 1920. 

But adult illiteracy, as was indicated above, is not limited 
to the remote regions of the Southern mountains. Adult 
aliens have brought much of it into New England and the 
North Atlantic States ; the states bordering on Mexico 
have a similar problem, while the Pacific States have many 



RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 21 1 

illiterates of oriental origin on their hands. Seventeen 
states in all are conducting moonlight schools. North 
Carolina, the first state to follow Kentucky's lead, reports 
10,000 adult illiterates in attendance in 191 6. Alabama is 
struggling to blot out negro illiteracy ; Oklahoma is doing 
a similar work among its Indians. In New Mexico an 
earnest campaign is on to educate the large population of 
Spanish-American origin. The county superintendent of 
Santa Fe County alone, reports 1500 grown men and women 
in school, eager for the rudiments of an education. Mean- 
while, the United States Bureau of Education has asked 
Congress for an appropriation to enable it to assist in making 
this a national campaign. 

When adult illiteracy shall have been conquered, the 
nation will owe its teachers another debt of gratitude, for 
the great burden of the evening schools has fallen on them. 
They are doing the work usually without pay, and en- 
couraged to do their best by the blessings and prayers of 
those who have, through their efforts, been set free from the 
shackles of ignorance. 

Schools for Adult Illiterates Might be Adapted from the 
Danish Folk High Schools. — The work of the present 
moonlight schools is limited naturally to the merest rudi- 
ments of education, with here and there an attempt of a 
more ambitious nature. To learn to read and write, to 
spell and figure, with brief drills in the essentials of lan- 
guage, history, geography, civics, sanitation, and agri- 
culture — this is the most that can be expected. But the 
retarded districts in the eastern highlands and on the south- 
western mesas crave more than the rudiments of reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. The fatalism of retardation, what- 
ever the cause, has placed a peculiar stamp upon these 
people which mere elementary academic processes will find 



212 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

it difficult to remove. At least it will be impossible to re- 
move it in the present generation. 

A new kind of school for grown-up people is needed in 
these backward regions. They might properly be adapted 
from the famous Danish Folk High Schools for grown-up 
people, in which inspirational lecture work is emphasized 
in addition to the essential rudiments of book-learning. 
This inspirational communion of inspired leaders with the 
adult pupils has had the effect of changing a generation of 
peasants in Denmark into happy, thinking, scientific farm- 
ers. As an educational force the school reaches clear down 
to the roots of things, strengthening character, and teaching 
rights of fellow man, loyalty to the state, and fear of God, 
even while it supplies the youth and old men, without 
distinction, with practical training for bread-winning. Simi- 
larly it might be made of inestimable value in hurrying the 
Americanization of the alien. 

These adult schools might well receive all who are not 
now looked after by the public schools. In some com- 
munities the schools would include even the public school 
children. There should be courses for those who are en- 
tirely illiterate as well as for those who have had some 
schooling. The schools must, in fact, be ready to meet 
the problems of all the people, without regard to age or 
preparation. The poor hillside farms have their problems 
— these must be looked after. The mountains need their 
own artisan class to rebuild the homes and reestablish the 
household arts of the olden time on a modern footing. 
There should be long courses for the youth and continuous 
short courses for their parents and grandparents. There 
should be day lectures open to the whole countryside, and 
extension lectures should be carried into the remotest 
coves. 



RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 213 

Such schools have already been started in a small way in 
the mountains of North Carolina, and other sections are 
preparing the way.^ 

Rural Continuation Schools. — Another important prob- 
lem is how best to assist the many thousands of farm youth 
who for economic reasons cannot attend school regularly 
or who have been obliged to leave school before attaining 
the degree of learning necessary for most successful living. 
Shall schools be established to supply the needs of the 
people, or must the people adapt themselves to the schools, 
or otherwise go untaught ? This is a question of vital im- 
portance, and one that has recently been getting consider- 
able attention. Trimmed of all its verbiage it amounts to 
this : either the nation must establish practical continuation 
schools in rural communities on the principle of similar 
institutions in the cities, or the industrial efficiency of the 
open country will never reach the maximum of efficiency 
of which it is capable. 

At least two states in the Union have acted on this prin- 
ciple and have established state- wide, state-aided systems of 
continuation schools for all their people — urban and rural. 
Several others have done this service for the city population 
without including rural districts. Occasionally the people 
in rural districts have taken the matter into their own 
hands and have formed volunteer organizations to provide 
what the state had neglected. 

Volunteer Continuation Schools in Iowa. — Some very 
unique rural continuation schools have been in operation 
in Cherokee County, Iowa, for a number of years. They 
were organized by County Superintendent Katherine Ross 
Logan, who determined to help in a practical way the " grown- 

^ For a complete discussion of this interesting subject see Rural Denmark and Its 
Schools, Chapter XVIII. 



214 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

ups " of the community who could not take advantage of 
the regular district schools. The Township Special Schools, 
as they are called, have done much to satisfy popular de- 
mands. 

The schools are, briefly, volunteer organizations, which 
can be adjusted to the needs of the people. They are 
usually in operation during the winter months when farm 
folk have their greatest leisure. An inexpensive building 
is secured — either by lease or construction — with two or 
three rooms. A simple equipment for handwork and 
domestic science is necessary, as is also a small agricultural 
laboratory. Two well-prepared teachers usually have 
charge of the school, which is small — from twenty to 
thirty students in all. The latter are all of them people 
eager for instruction. This is individual in nature, each 
one continuing study where he left off in the district school. 
The plan reminds one much of the Danish schools for small- 
holders ^ which require no entrance examinations and give 
no graduation diplomas. The small-hold schools, like the 
Iowa system, aim to fit the studies to the exact needs of the 
people ; to impart as large a store of culture as possible 
without giving them a contempt for farm life and work 
with their hands. 

The course of study in the Cherokee County schools is 
planned for seven winters of four months each, although few 
students are expected to complete the entire course. Each 
year's work centers about a major subject, as English, 
history, or science. But it permits of much freedom in 
electing subjects. In Miss Logan's study scheme the 
fourth winter, for illustration, is the '' English year," in 
which language and literature hold important place. This 
study plan is reproduced below. 

^ See Rural Denmark and Its Schools, Chapter XII. 



RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 215 

Fourth Winter 

english — major 
Boys Girls 

1. Elements of Journalism i. Elements of Journalism 

2. American Literature 2. American Literature 

3. Public Speaking 3. Public Speaking 

4. Mechanical Drawing for the 4. Mechanical Drawing for the 

Farm Farm 

5. Vegetable Gardening 5. Domestic Hygiene 

6. Food and Feeds for Stock 6. Planning a Balanced Meal 

7. Sewing 

8. Cooking 

Electives 

1. Modern Language 

2. Political Economy 

3. Observation and Methods of Teaching 

4. Penmanship 

5. Spelling 

6. Manual Training 

The influence of the township special schools on com- 
munity progress is quite remarkable. They are reaching 
scores of young people from fourteen years of age to high 
up in the twenties who had felt out of place in the one- 
teacher schools because they were over age or, for one reason 
or another, had found it impossible to attend high school 
in town ; or who could spare only a few months each year 
for further schooling. Similar volunteer organizations can 
be made especially effective in communities which have not 
yet been able to organize strong rural high schools with 
short courses in winter for adults and young people beyond 
ordinary school age. 

State-aided Vocational Education in Massachusetts. — 
No other state probably has been quite so successful as 



2i6 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Massachusetts in organizing vocational education for all 
its people, whether living in town or in the country. These 
schools comprise not alone day schools for boys and girls, 
but part-time schools for young people between fourteen, 
and sixteen years, and also evening schools for grown men 
and women. The aim is to reach all the people of the 
commonwealth in need of help. The schools appeal es- 
pecially to young people who have left the public school at 
too early an age to be effectively prepared for life responsi- 
bilities, because the school had failed to make vital appeal 
to them or because it had failed to offer definite preparation 
for suitable life-callings. 

The Massachusetts system is particularly effective, be- 
cause it has a carefully organized plan of administration. 
The state is the center of the system. Its Commissioner 
of Education directs all the work which is in immediate 
charge of the Deputy Commissioner. Through the latter 
official, state agents supervise all the agricultural schools, 
home-making schools, and teacher- training courses estab- 
lished under the vocational education law. 

Agricultural Education for Young and Old. — At the 
present time four separately organized agricultural schools 
and nine agricultural departments in high schools receive 
state aid. Many others will probably be aided at an early 
day. The schools are intended to meet the needs of three 
kinds of students : 

(i) Boys and girls, fourteen to twenty-five years of age, 
who devote the entire day to study and project work. One- 
half of their time is devoted to productive agricultural 
work, mainly supervised home projects ; thirty per cent 
is given to studies bearing directly upon their daily tasks; 
and the balance of their time is spent on the general culture 
subjects. 



RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 217 

(2) Young men engaged in active farming, who give a 
part of each day or a part of each week to school work. 
The courses are planned with a direct bearing on the pupils' 
regular employment. 

(3) Persons above seventeen years of age, regularly en- 
gaged in productive agriculture, who devote evenings to 
study at the schools. This group includes dairymen, truck- 
farmers, fruit-growers, etc. 

This new agricultural education makes book-study in- 
cidental to the vital processes of tilling the soil and producing 
things. Home projects are held the most important of all 
student activities. Each student must give much time to 
a specific project of this kind. During 1914 a Harwich 
pupil, aged sixteen years, had three-eighths of an acre in 
garden, and sixty hens ; another, aged eighteen years, 
devoted his time to three-sixths of an acre in garden, fifteen 
ducks, and seven chickens. A North Eaton pupil, aged 
nineteen, had thirty-five '' Reds and Rocks," two cows, one 
calf, and twelve hundred square feet of ground in potatoes. 

This carefully-planned educational scheme, it is seen, 
combines " earning " and " learning " in a most practical 
way. Thus, during the year 1914, 235 students in the 
thirteen schools earned $42,060.73 from farm work. 

Much of the success is due to the thoroughgoing super- 
vision employed. The state supervisor cooperates closely 
with each local instructor in securing the highest degree of 
productive efficiency for the pupils. Each school is the center 
of a project area, from which the instructors who teach the 
subject in school go forth to supervise that particular home 
project. In addition the law provides for the appointment 
of an advisory committee of farmers who are of great assist- 
ance in furnishing practical advice and In popularizing the 
agricultural projects in the community. 



2i8 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

This kind of education is not intended to displace other 
schools ; but to help the many people who are not reached 
by ordinary schools. Other states may well profit by this 
great forward movement in Massachusetts. It stands for 
industrial efficiency and vocational guidance which our 
country needs as much as any nation at the present time 
to take the place of the aimless hit-and-miss practices so 
common in many schools. 

Continuation Courses in Rural High Schools. — The 
discussions in the preceding paragraphs have related mainly 
to special schools. Unquestionably the most far-reaching 
continuation school work in rural districts at the present is 
found in connection with the best of the regularly estab- 
lished rural high schools. This has already been indicated 
in Part II. The courses are based on the principle 
repeatedly held before the reader, that education is a life 
process, and that all the machinery of the state and com- 
munity should be at the disposal of the public at all times 
to assist them in solving their life problems. 

Accordingly, the most effective continuation courses in 
rural high schools are promoted in cooperation with state 
educational authorities. This includes the state depart- 
ment of education and, usually, the extension department 
of the state college of agriculture. County agricultural 
agents also lend valuable assistance. The work embraces 
such activities as formation of farmers' clubs, giving advice 
in farm home construction, building silos, pruning and 
spraying orchards, cow testing, inoculation against hog 
cholera, ridding cattle of the fever tick, milk testing, seed 
germination, holding farmers' institutes, and encouragement 
of new social-recreational activities and other cooperative 
enterprises. In addition to these are the regular short 
courses which play a vital part in the new schools. 



RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 219 

Short Courses for the Whole Community. — There is, 
perhaps, no better illustration anywhere of this work than 
in the rural high schools of Minnesota. The winter short 
courses offered by the so-called Putnam and Benson-Lee 
acts have already become a prominent feature in the state's 
new community schools. The short courses are intended 
for people regularly beyond the reach of school. There is 
no maximum age limit. Students may enroll from fifteen 
years of age, or thereabouts, and upward. Any one who 
can profit by the courses is made welcome. The courses 
are three, four, five, and six months in length, varying in 
different schools. They are regularly intended for youth 
of the community beyond school age. Six-day courses 
for the parents are popular in many places during the last 
week of the regular short courses. 

The time is chosen to suit the farmers. The courses 
begin in November, after the fall work is done, and close 
in March, before the rush of spring work begins. The 
school hours are from ten o'clock a.m. to three o'clock 
P.M., which allows time for chores at home morning and 
evening. 

The daily routine includes a general brushing up in the 
elementary subjects. Farm arithmetic and accounting 
hold prominent places. Farm law, special phases of agri- 
culture, blacksmithing, carpentry, cooking, sewing, and 
other subjects are presented by enthusiastic instructors, 
many of whom are secured solely for the short courses. 
Each student does the work he needs the most. 

The reader may get a good idea of the comprehensiveness 
of the short courses from the daily program of such an 
eighteen weeks' course offered by the schools at Milaca, 
Minnesota : 



220 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 





Animal 
feeding. 
Animal 
breeding. 


Hash. 

Ginger- 
bread. 
Fruit 

pudding. 

Singletree. 

Doubletree. 

Forging 

links. 


Corset cover. 
Buttonholes. 

Liquid 
measure- 
ments. 

Account with 

fields and 

crops. 


Banking. 
Passbook. 

Check. 
Credit slip. 


1 g c 

CO 


^1 

hi 


Soup. 
Tomato 
sauce. 

Forging 

punch. 

Forging 

gatehook. 


Nightgown. 

Surface 
measure- 
ment. 

Trial 
balance. 


1 


Hi 


Dairy breeds. 

Feeding. 

Improvement. 

Care. 


Meats. 
Pot roast. 

Forge work. 
Cold chisel. 
Tempering. 


Nightgown. 
Decimals. 

Ledger. 


id . 

< 


1 1^ 


Crop 
rotation. 
Crop im- 
provement. 


Eggs. 
Custard. 

Miter box. 
Pipe fitting. 


Dresser 
scarf. 

Decimals. 
Ledger. 


1 


1 , 


Potato 
culture. 
Cereals. 
Judging. 


Rolls. 
Jelly. 

Bread board. 

Sharpening 

bits. 


Kitchen 
apron. 

Cancellation 

and 

fractions 

Daybook. 


i 

3 


u 


4th week — 
Nov. 27- 
Dec. I. 


ll 


Rice. 

Bread. 

Feed trough. 
Hammer 
handles. 

File handle. 

Bread board. 


Sewing bag. 

Fractions. 

Multiplica- 
tion and 
division. 

Daybook. 


Postal infor- 
mation. 
Express 

money order. 

Postal money 

orders. 


3d week — 
Nov. 20- 
Nov. 24. 


Corn culture. 

Selection. 

Improvement. 

Testing. 

Judging. 


Breakfast 
foods. 

Bench hook. 
Joints. 


Sewing bag. 

Fractions. 

Addition, 

subtraction. 

Debit and 
credit. 


Bills. 

Invoices. 

Statements. 

Receipts. 


2d week — 
Nov. 13- 
Nov. 17. 


a 

3 ti 


Potatoes. 

Vegetables. 

Sharpening 

tools. 

Timber 
splicing. 


Hems. 
Gathers. 
Bands. 
Seams. 

Rapid calcu- 
lation. 
Multiplica- 
tion and 
division. 

Debit and 
credit. 


Penmanship. 
Letter 
writing. 

Orders for 
goods. 


ist week — 
Nov. 6- 
Nov. 10. 


d 
..2 

3 


Study of 

foods. 
Scalloped 
apples. 
Hard sauce. 
Coffee. 
Sawing. 
Planing. 


Stitches. 

Rapid calcu- 
lation. 
Addition, 
subtraction. 

General 
principles. 


d 

ill 


m 

D 


Agriculture 

(Boys and 

girls). 

DAILY. 


Cooking 
(For girls). 

DAILY. 

Manual 

training 

(For boys). 

DAILY. 


Sewing 
(Girls). 

MONDAY, 
WEDNESDAY, 

AND Friday. 

Business 

arithmetic 

(Boys). 

MONDAY, 
WEDNESDAY, 
AND FRIDAY. 

Farm 

accounts 

CBoys and 

girls). 

TUESDAY AND 
THURSDAY. 


Business 

forms and 

Business law 

(Boys and 

girls). 

DAILY. 


•«noH 


'^ 

6*' 6 


PI 


\n 

'?o ": 





RURAL CONTINUATION SCHOOLS 



221 



1 


ONE WEEK FARMERS' INSTITUTE AND 
SCHOOL EXHIBIT 




m 


o2gS 

as s 




PL, "-^ 


b- i2 




l~4 




PL, < 






litl 


ill 111 
la- -II 


•1- ^ !is 

in ^ 


illii 


1 , 


111 




i! W it 

0in fu w 


1^ 


1 


1ll 

lis 


li 111 


1 11 II p 


s 


1 






II m |i 




1 

11.1 


a.- -a 


Pi |MI 


111 i ii 

< 


iiij 

^5 cj 


1 

1 " 


i« 


11 fti 


i il 1^1 a 

Q 




C/2 




Ilg ills 




(U ni t/i rt--- >* 
m o aPP 


■anoH 


O o "* 

M H 


1/^ lO 


3>o^ 


^o8 

M ■»-' CO 



222 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Do you agree to the thesis that it is the duty of Democracy to educate 
all its people ? Explain. 

Make a census of the young people in your district or neighborhood who 
for various reasons have not completed the elementary school. Report 
to class. 

Why is there so much illiteracy in the South Atlantic Highlands? 
Why in the southwestern part of the United States ? 

Explain the cause of increased illiteracy in certain sections of New 
England. In the Middle Atlantic States. 

Tell of the work of Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart. (See Bureau of Educa- 
tion Bulletin 1913, No. 20.) 

Are there ''moonlight schools" in your section? Do you think that 
your community could profit by such a school ? 

Give your opinion of the volunteer continuation schools in Iowa. 

Wherein do the Massachusetts vocational schools differ from other 
high schools? 

To what extent do schools in your community foster short courses, 
evening schools, or correspondence teaching? 

Special Studies 

Make a thorough study of illiteracy in the United States, based on the 
Federal Census for 1910. 

Summarize what the United States Government is doing to blot out 
illiteracy among our recent immigrants. For information address the De- 
partment of Labor, and the Bureau of Education, Washington, D.C. 

Select one of the following states and examine carefully its system of 
vocational education : 

1. Massachusetts; 

2. Pennsylvania; 

3. Wisconsin. 

Information can be procured by writing the State Departments of 
Education at Boston, Harrisburg, and Madison. 

Make a special study of the industrial club work promoted by the 
United States Department of Agriculture. 



PART III 

THE TEACHER AS MAKER OF THE 
REVITALIZED COURSE OF STUDY 



CHAPTER I 

The Reconstructed Course of Study Based on Rural 

Needs 

Influence of Tradition on School Work. — We now come 
to the third and last phase of the teacher's speciaHzed 
preparation for rural teaching — the mastery of the new 
subject matter in the course of study. All teachers must 
be aware that readjustments are taking place in the materials 
and methods of the rural schools. But such a hold has tradi- 
tion on what we teach and on what we learn in the schools, 
that much of the new subject matter has come as an accre- 
tion to an already crowded curriculum rather than as the 
result of genuine growth. Many schools continue with 
their faces turned backward to the past, clinging to much 
of the subject matter and methods of teaching pursued by 
the schoolmasters of the long ago. It is by no means as- 
sured that what seemed good for our grandparents is good 
for us. For the world does move ; and it has moved far 
and rapidly since those days ! 

No thinking person can deny that there is too much of 
the abstract, too many empty phrases, taught in school 
to-day, solely because such things were in the course of 
study handed down from the past. Popular opinion still 
has it that what was good enough for the fathers, is good 
enough for the sons ! What is needed in the schools, it is 
averred, is not more of the new-fangled subjects, but more 
of the three R's ! So we have continued to offer children 

Q 225 



2 26 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

the husks, throwing away the kernels for which they are 
eagerly seeking. 

Teachers Hampered by Boards and Established State 
Courses of Study. — In justice to the individual teachers 
it must be said that if they had been at liberty many would 
have cast aside the traditional rubbish for which they can 
see no justification, and have given the children instead the 
meat of living and present needs. Teachers have repeatedly 
met the writer with such statements as these : " What 
shall we do. Our school boards insist that we eliminate all 
the frills and stick to the essentials^ — the three R's." Or, 
" we are obliged to follow the state course of study. If we 
devote our time to teaching what is not in the state course, 
our eighth-grade pupils will fail in their examinations for 
promotion to high school." 

This is, unfortunately, quite true. School officials, par- 
ticularly in rural communities, often dictate to the teachers 
what they shall and shall not teach. And what do most 
of these officials know about school needs? Their own 
school experience has probably been limited to the pioneer 
school. This is an inadequate basis from which to judge 
what children should study nowadays. 

As to established courses of study : they are generally 
outlined to suit the textbooks in use, which are themselves 
cumbered with much that is traditional and obsolete. It 
is interesting to examine some of the state and local courses 
and note the unavailing efforts made to satisfy modern 
demands by patching a little here and a little there, like 
patches on an old garment, thereby overcrowding an al- 
ready heavily loaded course. The mistake is to think that 
such a patchwork will satisfy the demands of a great agri- 
cultural people striving to set its house in order in the midst 
of an epoch-making national transition. 



THE RECONSTRUCTED COURSE OF STUDY 227 

Before the readjustments can be realized the course of 
study for rural schools must be fundamentally recast. 
New textbooks must be written specifically for the 12,000,000 
rural children. State and local study outlines and syllabi 
must be modified to suit these needs, and educators, instead 
of laymen, must decide what shall be taught in school and 
what shall be left out. 

The Reconstruction Based on What Rural People Ought 
to Know. — Do the rural schools of our country teach 
what a modern agricultural population ought to know in 
order to get the greatest good out of life ? Do the schools 
provide the kind of instruction required to keep the people 
in enjoyment of good health and sanitary surroundings? 
Do the schools prepare them to earn remunerative livings 
out of the land ? Do they direct them to become useful, 
responsible members of the larger social group ? Do the 
schools, finally, so lead the people that they will devote a 
well-earned leisure to ethical and esthetical pursuits in the 
country, for the improvement of self and the upbuilding of 
the community ? If the schools are organized to accomplish 
these things, they approach the modern conception of 
education. If they limit themselves to the formal sub- 
jects of the traditional curriculum, no such end is attainable. 

What is Meant by the Modern Conception of Education. 
— What, then, do we mean when we speak of rural educa- 
tion in the modern sense? Just what ought the modern 
farmer and his wife know in order to attain the happy, 
healthy, remunerative life indicated above? 

In the first place, they must have a good mastery of the 
ordinary tools of education, in order that they may utilize 
these to rear the larger, enduring superstructure of educa- 
tion. They must know how to read fluently and write a 
legible hand ; they must know how to express themselves 



2 28 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

in good English ; they must be able to spell the words of 
their daily vocabulary ; they must be able to figure correctly 
and make such simple calculations as fall within the realm 
of ordinary usage. This is the beginning of their education 
only — the open sesame, as it were, to the precious and 
essential things of a full, rich agricultural life. 

The second stage in the education of an agricultural folk 
must harmonize their daily lives with the nature environ- 
ment in which they dwell and labor, so that they will love 
it and understand its wonders and mysteries. It must make 
them broad enough to know and care about the great 
physical and social world lying beyond their own home 
precincts. In this way will they learn to interpret the 
phenomena of the nature- world, and gain a comprehension 
of and sympathy for the activities of the social world around 
them everywhere. Finally, the second phase of their educa- 
tion must make of them independent thinkers and leaders 
to enable rural folk to take their place side by side with 
the urban population, to do their share of directing, of 
controlling, of dictating the afifairs of the nation. 

Lessons from Recent Studies by the Bureau of Educa- 
tion. — In 1 91 3 the United States Bureau of Education 
began a study of what our rural population ought to know 
in order to live wholesome, contented, and profitable lives 
on the land, or away from it if they should become attracted 
by the call and move to city places. Rural people in every 
section of the country were requested to give their views ; 
agricultural leaders and rural life experts in large number 
were interviewed on the same subject. The following key- 
note sounds through all the responses to the government 
queries : Our rural schools spend too much time in acquir- 
ing the working- tools of education, because the subject 
matter is *' cumbered with all kinds of unnecessary timber " 



THE RECONSTRUCTED COURSE OF STUDY 229 

and the methods of presentation are inadequate ; the schools 
do not devote enough time to the things which serve a real 
purpose. 

It is the concensus of opinion that the school should no 
longer limit its activities by the four walls of the school- 
house or to the covers of the textbook. Every activity of 
the community must be reflected in the curriculum. The 
farmplace, the fields, the streams, and the forests must all 
become laboratories or, at least, subject materials for the 
modern school. 

A Broader Culture Based on Vital Things. — It is un- 
necessary to show that a curriculum founded on real life 
purposes may be as genuinely cultural as any based on 
ancient language and philosophy. We are so accustomed 
to associate culture with subjects of little immediate avail- 
ability that the living, vital subjects we have under con- 
sideration in the modern curriculum are often looked upon 
as utilitarian and materialistic and, hence, not genuinely 
" educational." This is, of course, absurd. 

The only required test for inclusion in the curriculum 
should be for the subject to serve a real purpose, be this 
spiritual or material. The great inheritance of literature 
and art, for example, is certainly not to be excluded 
from the curriculum ; but some portions of what is called 
literature and art will be excluded. Language is not to be 
excluded ; but dead language will have no place in the 
reorganized course, because it cannot prove the assumption 
of serving a useful purpose, at least for rural people. In 
the Danish folk high schools and agricultural schools Latin 
has never had a place. Yet the folk school is the most 
cultural of schools. German and English are taught ; but 
not because of any real value in themselves. Modern 
languages are offered because they are necessary as a means 



230 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

of communication to the young farmers who later go to 
Germany and England as agents of the cooperative agri- 
cultural organizations. 

The Reconstruction, a Gradual Evolution. — The writer's 
impulse would be to reconstruct the rural curriculum from 
first to last — at once. Nothing ought to be retained which 
cannot be shown to serve a useful purpose. The new 
materials should have to pass a similar test. The old plea 
that a subject is " good mental discipline " can no longer 
save it from being discarded. Neither can the plea of 
affording information of some sort be accepted. Encyclo- 
pedic wisdom has no place in the schools. All informational 
materials in the curriculum must serve a vital purpose, 
immediate or remote, in order to retain a place. 

However, we will probably have to content ourselves 
with a more gradual modification of the present curriculum. 
But this should be carefully planned and fundamental. In 
the process of reconstruction the following at least must 
receive consideration : (i) A thorough elimination of every- 
thing that does not meet the test of useful purpose ; (2) in- 
troduction of subject materials adapted to help rural people 
attain happy, healthful, and remunerative life conditions ; 
and (3) redirecting whatever has been retained in the curric- 
ulum after the first elimination to give it a more direct 
application or utility. 

Textbooks will soon be published, planned on the prin- 
ciples suggested above. This will greatly lighten the 
teacher's work. Meanwhile, the teachers will be obliged 
to use their own ingenuity to best purpose. The following 
chapters are written for teachers seeking to adjust their 
instructional work to meet the needs of our present agri- 
cultural population. 



THE RECONSTRUCTED COURSE OF STUDY 231 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Suggest some ways in which tradition has influenced our curriculum. 

Differentiate clearly between the school subjects that are mere tools 
and so-called content subjects. 

Why are you unwilling to accept a school subject solely on the ground 
that it affords "good mental discipline"? Enumerate some subjects 
which hold their place in the present curriculum on this doubtful assump- 
tion. 

Do your school board members ever interfere in what you teach? 
Does your state course of study contain suggestions of special value to 
you as a rural teacher ? 

When we speak of a reconstruction based on what rural folk ought to 
know, is it our purpose to limit this knowledge to just those things that 
are necessary to live from day to day on the farm, or does it include more 
than this ? Explain. 

Does the modem conception of education call for a change in the way 
the three R's or formal subjects are taught? Give your explanation. 

What is the test to determine whether or not a subject is "cultural" ? 



Special Studies 

Make a careful study of Gates' The Country School of Tomorrow. 
Report the results to class. 

Report on Dewey's "Reorganization of the Curriculum," in his 
Schools of Tomorrow. 

Summarize the contents of one of the following reports on Needs of 
Farm Women : 

Economic Needs of Farm Women ; 

Domestic Needs of Farm Women ; 

Social and Labor Needs of Farm Women. 

(These are pubHshed respectively as U. S. Department of Agriculture 
Reports Nimiber 106, 104, and 103, and may be procured free.) 



CHAPTER II 
The Traditional Subjects and the New Emphasis 

The Curriculum of the Early District School. — It is 
now time to conclude the sketch of our early rural schools, 
begun in Part I of the book. 

Noah Webster's "Grammatical Institute," or ''Elemen- 
tary Spelling Book," as it was later known, which came 
into general use during the first quarter of the nineteenth 
century, marked an epoch in the change of school methods. 
Prior to this, spelling had received little attention. Now 
it became a craze. A pupil who could " spell down the 
whole school ranked second only to him who surpassed 
the rest in arithmetic." Once a week there would be regular 
spelling matches. In time these were held on winter even- 
ings and brought out the whole country-side. Neighboring 
districts would occasionally send their champion spellers 
to compete in friendly spelling bouts. Declamation, dia- 
logues, and debates were later added to these evening 
entertainments and we have the beginnings of the lyceum 
and literary society which for many years continued as a 
vital force in the social life of the rural community. 

Separate readers came into general use during the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century. These books were 
written with little regard to the immaturity or limited 
capacity of the child mind. '' The Franklin Primer," as an 
illustration, contained " a variety of tables, moral lessons 
and sentences, a concise History of the World, appropriate 
Hymns, and Dr. Wells, and the Assembly of Divines' 
Catechism." It was a miscellany of facts, many entirely 

232 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 233 

beyond the comprehension of the child reading the books. 
Books such as these certainly did not add any to the popu- 
larity of the early district schools. 

Nicholas Pike's arithmetic was published in 1788 and 
early became the acknowledged authority in its field. As 
in pioneer times, most of the children seldom advanced 
beyond the elementary processes of addition, subtraction, 
multiplication, and division. A few delved into vulgar 
fractions, and " won distinction among their mates," says 
a great authority in this field, " if they penetrated into the 
Rule of Three ; and to cipher through Pike was to be 
acknowledged a prodigy." 

Geography was slow to find its way into the district 
school curriculum. Jedidiah Morse, the father of geog- 
raphy, wrote his first school geography in 1783, but geo- 
graphic study continued long to be considered as "a 
diversion for a winter's evening " rather than as a useful 
science. This and the other textbooks in use were crude 
and full of inaccuracies and imaginative travelers' tales 
gathered from many sources. 

The School of Our Childhood. — Now to pass on to the 
school of our own childhood days. Well do we recall it — 
not the district school of the 40's, to be sure ! Yet, in many 
ways a school just as narrow and just as devoid of vital 
interest to children as was that other school. The work 
was a matter of drill, drill ! of learning all manner cf 
abstract things more or less disassociated with our experi- 
ences as healthy, natural boys and girls of the playground, 
of field and forest, of farmyard and village street. The 
formal subjects were not taught as " tools " preparing us 
for further educational purpose. They were taught as 
ends in themselves. 

When we first enrolled at school it was with a hateful 



234 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

feeling of being penned up for dreary hours and years, every 
childish instinct and sense of justice outraged by the new 
enslavery of dry books. And dry they were ; and no less 
dry the methods used ! Do we recall the way we learned to 
read, beginning with the A B C's ? Then being advanced 
step by step until the fifth or sixth reader was read and 
reread, all the rest of the course revolving about the readers 
as a pivot — and no one dreaming then that reading for read- 
ing's sake might not be the sole end of all these literary 
gymnastics ! 

Then the spelling classes ! Long columns of difficult 
words unassociated with anything in our daily activities. 
And the children goaded on to commit these lists of words 
to memory, to spell down John and Mary, and so gain 
another head mark — and thereupon go home and forget 
the whole hateful list ! It was much the same with the old 
deductive grammar — sentences to be analyzed and dia- 
grammed ; words to be parsed. The whole acquired by 
such unpedagogical methods that we seldom found the 
relation of the English of the classroom to the vernacular 
of the playground ! 

Then came the arithmetics cunningly planned to make 
boys and girls miserable, with impossible catch problems 
and mathematical conundrums. And the geography, cover- 
full of useless enumerations of facts too remote from rural 
life to be anything but dead timber. And the methods of 
teaching it: "Maine is bounded on the north by New 
Brunswick, on the east by," etc. "Where is Bangor?" 
" Bangor is on the left bank of the Penobscot River," etc. 
Finally, the physiology with its catalogue of bones, muscles, 
and parts of the digestive tract. But, as for rules of health 
and of sanitary living, they were unfamiliar to us or, at 
least, seldom practiced in the school. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 235 

This may sound overdrawn and extravagant. But let 
us be honest with ourselves : have we not even now schools, 
here and there, little better than these, in which the subject 
matter used and the methods employed are both dreary 
and senseless, adapted only to make children dread school 
and all that belongs with it ? 

Gradual Accretion to the Old-time Curriculum. — The 
educational period described above is now fortunately on 
the whole well behind us. The old-time rural curriculum 
has recently become enriched with new material, much of a 
practical nature and some poorly adapted to rural needs. 
Methods of teaching have likewise improved with the 
growth in number and efficiency of professional schools. 
The rural schools are undeniably more attractive to the 
pupils than were the schools of our youth. New subjects 
have taken their place in the daily program, and others 
are in the process of getting recognition. It is unfortunate 
that this enrichment has come as an accretion and not as 
a natural growth. With the addition of new subject matter 
there has not been a corresponding elimination of the old 
and wornout. This accretion process has given us a curricu- 
lum with much useless rubbish that must be cleared away 
to give place for new practical subject material. 

The grammar, geography, and history of the school of 
the 40's were early supplemented with physiology. A 
little later nature study and language lessons were added 
in the more progressive schools. Drawing and music next 
sought admission. Finally, come the new industrial sub- 
jects, — agriculture, manual training, and household arts, — 
striving to become the pivotal subjects in the new curriculum. 

Plan of Reconstruction. — Leading educators are giving 
much time and thought nowadays to scientific tests and 
measurements in education, to determine the effective value 



236 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

of school subjects as they are taught. EHmination of use- 
less subjects and economy of time in study likewise are 
receiving much consideration. But the practical applica- 
tion of all these studies is usually limited to the city and town 
schools. Very seldom is the influence felt so far downward 
in our educational systems as the rural schools. A few at- 
tempts have been made, it is true, to reorganize the great 
mass of materials resulting from the gradual accretion into a 
satisfactory course of study for rural folk ; but most of them 
have been too timid, and, therefore, of little practical value. 

The final reorganization must be based on the principles 
outlined in the preceding chapter. In a sentence : We 
must eliminate all materials no longer serving a useful pur- 
pose ; we must freely introduce new materials required to 
meet the conception of modern rural education ; we must 
readjust whatever is retained of the traditional subject 
material to meet the new demands. 

Elimination in the Traditional Subjects. — The first step, 
then, is to rid the course of study of all useless and cumber- 
some materials. The test of useful purpose must invariably 
be applied. In arithmetic, for example, tables of weights 
and measures belonging to the special trades and professions, 
complicated problems in percentage, partnership, exchange, 
and the like can pass no test of present usefulness in rural 
education, and will accordingly be eliminated. In English, 
for the same reason, the children will no longer be obliged 
to struggle with interjections, appositives, conjunctive ad- 
verbs, formal parsing, and diagramming. In physiology 
they will omit the old anatomical catalogue of bones, muscles, 
and parts of the alimentary canal, suitable only for em- 
bryonic medical students. Similar eliminations will occur 
in spelling, in geography, and in history as is shown in detail 
in later paragraphs. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 237 

Inclusion of New Subjects, and a New Emphasis on Old 
Subjects. — The principles promulgated above require 
that we include definitely in the program the industrial 
subjects — agriculture, manual training, and home eco- 
nomics. Of these, agriculture in the sense meant here is 
really elementary science combined with practical agri- 
culture, or nature-study agriculture. Manual training 
comprises all useful handwork for boys and girls aside from 
what is included in the term home economics. The latter 
embraces what is generally known as domestic science and 
domestic art. 

The new emphasis on the old subjects has for all practical 
purposes given us several new studies. The old arithmetic 
has become or is becoming, rural arithmetic and farm ac- 
counts, the old physiology is being transformed as rural 
hygiene and farm home sanitation, and the old civil govern- 
ment is gaining a more practical sphere as rural community 
civics. The change in these titles is sufhciently suggestive 
of the new transformation in point of view and content and 
does not need any further explanation here. 

Redirecting the Old Subjects. — When the elimination 
process is completed, the work of redirection begins. After 
the destructive process comes the constructive. The funda- 
mental principles of the average subject are ordinarily re- 
tained as before the elimination began. The local applica- 
tion alone is modified to bring the problem within the 
experience of the pupil's daily activities. In the arithmetic 
class, for example, it would quicken a pupil's interest and 
add to his practical knowledge and efhciency to send him 
with pencil pad and three-foot rule into the school yard to 
calculate the cost of erecting a hog-tight fence around the 
premises, using definitely specified materials, or to give 
him problems in growing farm crops, dairy problems. 



238 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

poultry problems, and the like. Nature environment and 
practical farm-activities can furnish him materials and 
themes without number for his reading and composition 
classes. Even the spelling words can be gleaned from the 
experiences of daily life. Similarly, in his geography class 
he will begin to spend less time on the location of such places 
as Timbuktu and Pernambuco, Bankok and Teheran, and 
more to a study of land andjv^^ater forms of the community, 
the farm as an industrial center and its commercial relations 
to the larger community, and other equally suggestive topics. 
The field of adaptation is wonderfully large, even in these 
old formal subjects. 

Since there are not yet many satisfactory textbooks to 
aid the teachers in their task of redirection, personal in- 
genuity must play an important part. Farm life readers 
have appeared on the market, although not very satisfac- 
tory in arrangement and selection of topics. Several rural 
arithmetics have been published ; but most of them unfor- 
tunately adhere slavishly to the plan of the old arithmetics. 
It is good news to teachers that several large publishers of 
school books have recently planned complete series of text- 
books for rural schools. Meanwhile, let teachers use the 
teaching materials ready and waiting to be used. What 
better reading materials are there anywhere, for example, 
than the gleanings from the standard agricultural and other 
rural periodicals? What better geography text than the 
school yard and farm place, the hills and valleys, the fields 
and forests? What finer topics for the study of citizen- 
ship than country roads and bridges, division-line fences, 
and schoolhouse upkeep and beautification ? 

The Language Arts in the Rural Schools. — No subject in 
the rural curricukmi has been so badly taught as the English 
language ; particularly composition and grammar. It is a 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 239 

proverbial saying that rural children dislike both these 
subjects and shirk them whenever they can. If rural pupils 
enter town schools for advanced work, their English prepara- 
tion is very often below grade, even though they may be 
well abreast of the town children in other subjects. The 
reason is not far to seek. Our schoolmasters have sought 
to convey this language ability to their pupils through the 
dreary rounds of formal grammar, with its elaborate classi- 
fications, its close distinctions, and highly specialized ma- 
chinery. Inductive language lessons which should grow 
out of the fertile language materials found in every school 
subject have been neglected. Oral and written composition, 
through which language content takes form, have been 
limited mostly to occasional purposeless essays. Finally, 
reading and spelling — the tools of language ^- have been 
taught as things apart from the language arts, not so much 
to aid the pupil to attain a deep appreciation for and lasting 
understanding of the mother-tongue as to acquire a facility 
in verbal gymnastics. 

English Grammar in the Schools. — Grammar is the 
science of speech rather than the art of speaking. Since 
the art of language antedates language as a science, it is 
illogical to expect mere children to gain a mastery of gram- 
mar. Men had been conversing in the vernacular and 
were writing it for ages before the logician formulated his 
science of language. Children learn to speak the mother- 
tongue by a natural process which is inductive. Grammar 
violates this natural method. It is an excellent means by 
which to clarify and definitely fix our standards of language- 
accuracy, to be sure. But instruction in grammar should 
come later, after the child has learned to express himself 
in reasonably good English, orally and in writing. Formal 
grammar has little or no place in the elementary rural school. 



240 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Grammatical forms should be introduced incidentally by 
the teacher in connection with the language lessons. The 
simple essentials of grammar may be taught advanta- 
geously during the last half-year of the elementary school 
course, in connection with the language work, as a means to 
help the pupils to clarify their impressions and to fix defi- 
nitely in their minds the few fundamental principles that 
every one should be familiar with. 

The following list ^ of grammatical terms may be omitted 
from class discussion. They are both useless and cumber- 
some to elementary pupils : Exclamatory sentence, inter- 
jection, appositive, nominative of address, objective 
complement, indefinite pronouns, classification of adverbs, 
conjunctive adverbs, nominative absolute, formal parsing, 
and diagramming. 

Language Teaching. — The chief purpose of language 
teaching is to train the pupils to express themselves in good, 
forceful, accurate English, both spoken and writtem In 
the process of achieving this universal art the pupils are 
also trained to think, for no one can express himself clearly 
and accurately without making use of his powers of thought. 
Furthermore, they are taught appreciation of good litera- 
ture, and ultimately their vocabulary becomes enriched 
and enlarged so as to enable them to give words the exact 
shade of meaning. Teachers generally concede that lan- 
guage instruction will accomplish all of this for the pupils ; 
but either the preparation for this kind of instruction has 
been faulty in the professional schools or else the old " gram- 
mar way " is too firmly fixed in the average teacher's mind to 
be readily thrown over. For certain it is that teachers, 
whether they realize it or not, continue to emphasize gram- 

^ See Course of Study in Grammar Based upon the Grammatical Errors of School 
Children, Charters and Miller, University of Missouri, Bulletin, Vol. i6, No. 2. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 241 

matical machinery to the serious loss of practical language 
teaching. 

The Methods of Language Lessons. — Children learn 
to use language by imitating the speech of others. Every 
language expression that appeals to the child is stored up 
in memory and later reproduced. In other words, the child 
must depend on the spoken and written language of his 
elders for his own. He copies the speech of his father and 
mother, and of his playmates. He learns new words from 
the stories that are told him and the books that he is taught 
to read. How well he learns his mother tongue depends en- 
tirely upon the environment in which he lives and the 
ability and painstaking care of the teachers under whose 
instruction he comes. 

It is evident from this that language, to be taught well, 
is much more than a book subject. Language books should 
be used as guiding-threads from the third school year up- 
ward ; but aside from this the average language lesson 
should grow out of the actual daily needs of the children. 
These vary in different communities. The common errors 
of speech discovered in conversation or during recitation, 
or on the playground or at home, can be classified and 
organized as regular school language work. Eternal vigi- 
lance on the part of the teacher has its rewards in language 
teaching as in no other subject. 

Language, then, should be considered not only a phase 
of every industry and activity in and out of school, it is 
equally a distinct and important phase of every school 
subject. Only as it is so valued by the teacher and pupils 
will its teaching result in permanent good. Language is 
closely correlated with every subject in the daily program. 
It is so necessary to clear thinking and to adequate expression 
in each of them that a criticism of its teaching is at the same 



242 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

time a criticism of the teaching of the various school sub- 
jects. Moreover, the first and most logical place to apply 
the principles learned in the language lesson is in the other 
school subjects and in the other activities of the school and 
home. If they are not applied there, it is unreasonable to 
expect their application elsewhere. 

Every subject has advantages for some particular kind 
of language training. Arithmetic helps in precise and exact 
expression. Reading presents a fine opportunity for imita- 
tion and permanent ideals — a chance to compare our own 
efforts with the efforts of those more expert than we. History 
is excellent for narrative and argument, both oral and 
written, and only poor history does not lend life to com- 
position and only poor composition does not give clarity 
and interest to history. Geography and arithmetic can 
scarcely be surpassed for description and exposition. What 
the child knows well in these subjects he expresses clearly; 
he readily learns the relationship between understanding 
a topic and his ability to express himself in regard to it. 

Composition Work in Rural Schools. — The average 
rural school has given very little time to oral and written 
composition, as a part of language work. Composition, 
too, should be looked upon as a phase of every school sub- 
ject, rather than as a separate study. Composition is a 
natural practice and begins as soon as a child talks. The 
teacher's task is to draw out the child's natural abilities to 
compose, to aid him to deepen his impressions, and to find 
a satisfactory means of expression, on any theme or subject 
that may appeal to him. Instead of helping the child to 
find the right kind of outlet for his own little thought- world, 
teachers are prone to repress the children's little efforts at 
spontaneous expression, and so forever throw a pall over 
their desire for individual effort. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 243 

The teacher must take the child in its own thought- world, 
and, while directing him, should be careful not to impose his 
composition themes on the child, who must be permitted 
to " say " what is in his heart to say. The fields and hills, 
and woods and brooks, the school and home garden, the 
home projects, the children's play life, their chickens and 
calves — all are full of vital interests that may serve as 
themes for oral and written composition. 

In the nature-study agriculture class, by way of illus- 
tration, we have an abundance of such themes as these : 
" Birds that I know " ; " Some insect friends and foes " ; 
" My home garden " ; "The poultry club " ; and " The 
tomato canning club." Mary will select for her eighth 
grade theme, we will suppose, the first title in the list. 
Immediately the correlation of subject study begins — 
nature, natural history, geography, agriculture, and English. 
She will study the birds and their habitat first hand ; she 
will read up on them in the encyclopedia and in books pro- 
vided by the teacher. Periodicals will be studied, and 
pictures of familiar birds, probably gathered from various 
sources for the booklet w^hich should grow^ from day to day 
as the work progresses. 

This is an illustration of the possibilities of the longer 
compositions. All, certainly, need not be of such length 
or depth of study. While the weightier theme is under 
way, oral and written composition of the paragraph kind 
continue a part of every subject in the program. 

Place of Spelling in the Rural Schools. — Spelling also 
must be considered a form of composition. Its function 
is to provide the correct forms of words needed in everyday 
composition — particularly written composition. Both oral 
and written spelling are valuable. But since the pupil 
needs to spell the word only when he wishes to write it, oral 



244 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

spelling is less important than written spelling, and is valu- 
able chiefly for review, for giving variety, and because a 
large number of children are " ear-minded " rather than 
" eye-minded." 

The first principle in spelling which should receive the 
teachers' careful consideration is, that only such words as 
are needed in the pupils' written exercises from day to day 
— i.e. their own vocabulary — should be included in the 
spelling classes. 

The average spelling book contains from 10,000 to 15,000 
words, all of which the pupils are expected to spell before 
getting through school. Careful tests ^ have demonstrated 
that the average adult uses only between 350 and 550 words 
in his written vocabulary. Similar tests made of school 
children ^ give like results. Very few of them use more 
than 350 words in their daily tasks. Under these conditions 
we can see the folly of forcing pupils to learn indiscriminately 
long lists of words, grouped by columns without reference to 
use. The disastrous results are clearly demonstrated in 
the drawing set forth below. The child too often fails to 
get a good grasp of the simplest everyday words because 
he has to struggle with long lists of words lying almost 
wholly outside his own vocabulary. 

One may ask, should spelling books be used at all ? Or, 
should spelling lists be prepared by the teachers and used 
instead? If all teachers had the necessary power of dis- 
crimination, unquestionably the better method would be 
for them to select their own lists exclusively. But the 
average teacher has not the training necessary to do this 
delicate task well ; hence it will be necessary to continue to 

^ See Leonard P. Ayres, The Spelling Vocabularies of Personal and Business 
Letters. 

2 Franklin W. Jones, Concrete Examination of the Material of English Spelling. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 245 



depend on spelling books. The books, however, should 
only supplement the written spelling exercises, not supplant 
them. The teachers must be clear in their own minds on 
this point. 

The best method of presenting words for spelling is in 
context, instead of in lists of isolated words. A paragraph, 



Attempting to learn these: — 



While misspelling these:-" 



spectacle 

halo 

legacy 

gossamer 

sluice 

lurid 

buoyant 

linear 

aggrieve 

superlative 

romantic 

obstinate 




Fig. 28. 



Reproduced from the Elimination Report of the Iowa 
State Teachers' Association. 



stanza, quotation, or letter, for example, may be selected 
in the book or placed on the blackboard, with the words to 
be learned emphasized in some way — perhaps underlined. 
They may then be taken out from the context, carefully 
visualized, written, pronounced correctly with meaning 
clearly understood, special difficulties pointed out, and 
study directions given. 

In countries whose languages are purely phonic, spelling 
is seldom treated as a separate class subject. The English 
language, as Charles B. Gilbert puts it, " is a strange medley 
of the labors of philologists, pseudo-philologists, ignorant 
printers, and equally ignorant writers who have attempted 



246 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

to follow some real or imaginary auditory analogy." For 
this reason our schools must continue to maintain separate 
classes in spelling. At the same time it is just as important 
to deal with spelling as a vital phase of every class exercise. 
Many successful teachers draw their spelling lists from 
every class subject. For example, in the agriculture class 
or civics class the pupils may falter in the pronunciation 
of certain words — an evidence of faulty visualization, or 
the meaning is not clear to the pupils, or the words are mis- 
spelled in the written exercises. All such words should be 
listed immediately on the blackboard and kept there as a 
part of the agriculture or civics exercise until definitely 
mastered. 

Reading, a Means to an End. — Reading will always 
continue as a most important subject in the rural curriculum. 
Success or failure in teaching reading depends, of course, 
wholly upon how it is taught. Does the teacher have a 
clear comprehension of the aims and purposes of teaching 
reading? Does he understand what the children of the 
different grades or groups should read? Does he know 
how to correlate reading with the other subjects in the 
program? Does he utilize the rich wealth of information 
of a social-economic nature available in supplementary 
readers, and the current periodicals — particularly the 
rural press? 

Reading has for its aim more than mere ability to convey 
to the mind the thought contained in the printed page. 
The process of learning must give ability to judge the worth 
of what is read, to discriminate between what is good reading 
and what is bad ; to create a taste for the best in literature; 
and to establish the reading habit, that it may become a 
life process. Good reading is inseparable from a certain 
attainment in oral expression ; but the mechanics of read- 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 247 

ing is not the aim and end of reading. Reading is valuable 
only as it appeals to a child's instincts and interests, as it 
stirs him to action, and opens for him channels through 
which his budding activities can find an outlet. 

No reading materials should be used which cannot stand 
the test of useful purpose. That is, do they appeal to the 
child's instincts, interests, and understanding at the same 
time that they appeal to his social, ethical, and esthetical 
nature ? If the selections stand this test of useful purpose, 
they should be included ; if not, they should be rejected. 

The reading course, both in method and selection of 
material, should lead the child by natural steps through 
mere formal word mastery to thought mastery, till ulti- 
mately formal reading blends with the content subjects, 
and so ceases to be of further use as a separate teaching- 
subject. 

Teaching Writing in Rural Schools. — Very little need 
be said on the subject of writing in rural schools. So long 
as writing was taught as " penmanship," the schools were 
inclined to feature it as an accomplishment with emphasis 
on flourishes, scrolls, and complicated monograms. Writ- 
ing is a mechanical process, with little or no esthetic or 
intellectual value. The sole purpose of writing in school 
should be to enable the pupil to record his thoughts with 
legibility and speed. 

Any system that stresses these two essentials and en- 
ables the pupil to learn the art with the least expenditure 
of time and effort, may safely be used by the teacher. 
Several methods have come and gone, all with many good 
points to recommend them. The Spencerian system and 
the vertical system have had, and still have, many warm 
advocates in the schools. Both have their excellent points, 
and some natural faults. The Palmer Method is popular 



248 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

in most sections of the country at the present. A com- 
mendable feature of this system is the assistance rendered 
teachers by the pubHshers in mastering its essentials, and 
the interest in class progress demonstrated by the pub- 
lishers through writing contests based on quality and speed 
tests. 

The teacher had best adopt some one good system or 
method ; otherwise failure is likely to befall. But, how 
long should pupils be expected to do writing as a distinct 
class exercise? Only long enough to attain a reasonable 
standard set by the teacher. As soon as this standard has 
been attained, the pupils should be excused from class drill, 
with the understanding that they begin again any time they 
drop below the teacher's standard. After this, language 
and composition work in other subjects will provide ample 
opportunity for writing drills. In all written exercises 
the teacher must insist on accuracy and neatness. Herein 
lies the secret to success in teaching writing. 

It would be well for every teacher to study one or more 
of the recent methods for measuring writing so as to be able 
to judge for himself what may be termed a reasonable re- 
quirement. Among these probably none are more instruc- 
tive than Thorndike's or Ayres' scales of measurement.^ 

What Mathematics Must be Taught. — Mathematics in 
the rural school course should not be regarded so much as 
a science as the science of number applied to useful activi- 
ties. It is no longer tenable to proceed on the theory that 
the value of a mathematical calculation lies in the mental 
power it produces. In methods of instruction, likewise, 
stress is no longer placed on memory alone, with its drill, 

* See Thorndike, Scale of Handivnting, Teachers College Record, March, 1910; 
and Leonard Ayres, Scale of Handwriting, Educational Bulletin, Russell Sage 
Foundation. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 249 

eternal drill ! Emphasis is laid on practical and useful 
problems. We must therefore be guided by these funda- 
mentals while selecting the study topics for rural schools. 

A complete course in mathematics for rural schools 
should include practical arithmetic, farm accounting, and 
simple phases of plane geometry dealing with measurement 
and land surveys. All this, however, should be taught 
under the single head of arithmetic. 

The eliminations must first be made. The following list 
of topics has been agreed to by several leading educational 
authorities.^ Teachers can safely accept it as the ex- 
pression of the best progressive thought on the subject. 
These topics may be omitted : Greatest common divisor ; 
complex fractions ; Troy weight, apothecaries' weight, sur- 
veyors' measure, tables of foreign money, annual interest, 
compound interest, true discount and partial payments, 
stocks and bonds (as usually taught), and foreign exchange ; 
compound proportion ; cube root ; and metric system (until 
the government enforces its use). 

The constructive work falls under these captions: (i) 
Fundamental processes, and (2) Practical applications. 
Under the first head there should be thorough work in ad- 
dition, subtraction, multiplication, and division ; in common 
and decimal fractions, and factoring; tables of simple 
measurements and United States money ; and practical 
rules in mensuration. Under the second head the problems 
should be based on daily activities. Many farmers fail 
because they do not know how to keep account of receipts 
and disbursements. They cannot point out with certainty 

^ See Frank M. McMurry, What Omissions are Desirable in the Present Course of 
Study, 1904 N. E. A, Report (Department of Superintendence) ; Iowa State 
Teachers' Association, Committee on Elimination of Subject-matter, 1915 Report, 
and Minn. Educa. Assoc, Report Elimination in Elementary Course of Study, 
1914. 



250 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK ] 

where the financial leaks are. They can seldom borrow 
money to advantage. They are often helpless in matters 
of organizing cooperative enterprises which call for mathe- 
matical calculation and some business preparation. The 
necessary constructive problem material may be summarized 
as, simple business practice and farm accounting ; banking 
problems ; fire, hail, and life insurance ; taxes ; school and 
district bonds ; problems involved in organizing coopera- 1 
tive creameries, • elevator companies, etc. ; fundamental \ 
problems in soil-building, crop production, shipping, and ' 
market conditions ; in stock-raising, dairying, and poultry j 
production ; thrift problems in machinery upkeep and i 
depreciation, and upkeep of farm buildings and surrounding 
premises ; and other problems in farm and home manage- ^ 
ment that will suggest themselves to teachers and pupils 
from day to day as they are needed. ! 

A New Emphasis on Geography. — In the next chapter : 
we learn how the nature environment forms the background ! 
out of which springs the entire rural curriculum. The first ! 
facts of geography grow gradually out of nature study^^-^j 
So intimate, indeed, is this relation that all the nature phe- | 
nomena, whether called nature study, agriculture, or geog- j 
raphy, ought to be considered as a systematized whole to 
be treated in horizontal section, and not in distinct vertical 
section, with all the facts pertaining to a subject crammed 
into its own little section. 

Geography is a study of the earth's relation to man — ' 
a study of how man lives upon the earth, how he gets his 
living out of the earth, and his social and economic inter- 
course with other men. For/oiese reasons the phases of 
geography studied by rural children should be related to 
their daily life as children and as grown-up people. The 
rural schools have been slow to make use of the vitally inter- 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 251 

esting geographic facts abounding in every rural community. 
Instead, they have contented themselves with teaching 
the common terms and definitions used in describing land 
and water forms from the printed page of the book rather 
than from the hills and valleys, brooks and ponds, lying 
at the heart of the school community ! Even yet are rural 
children obliged to spend their time in memorizing defini- 
tions of capes and headlands, peninsulas and isthmuses, 
located somewhere on the map ; their time is taken up with 
" bounding " states and countries and hemispheres, with 
locating state capitals and state metropolises and countless 
other facts just as dreary and profitless. 

Geography teaching should not begin with the earth as 
an "oblate spheroid " — as far removed from the child's 
experiences as possible — but with the home region, known 
to him from infancy. Home geography provides a vast 
store of local information of much importance. The chief 
reason for emphasizing it is, however, the aid it furnishes 
through local experiences to the general study of geography. 
To begin with the familiar things and work outward to the 
less well-known or strange affords opportunity to utilize 
the children's apperceptive powers. 

An excellent place to begin such a study is the school- 
room. /The teacher may begin by teaching directions as 
related to the schoolroom and the schoolroom as related 
to the out-of-doors. Next, it is well to locate the school- 
house and grounds m relation to other points of interest in 
the community, as shown in the brief outline below. The 
children should by degrees be made familiar with local 
topography and through it gain a comprehension of the 
varied features and vast proportions of the earth. Then 
should come a study of the history of the farm ; a study of 
its soil ; its drainage ; the roads that bound it and lead 



252 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

away from it, out into the world. Next, it is essential to 
know the products of the farm, — what are to be used at home 
and what exchanged for products of remote places and 
countries. From this study of the farm we may turn to 
the whole community and its trading center, from which 
our outward exploration of an interesting, mysterious world 
continues. There is a vitality in this because the children 
play a real role in a living world. Their own community 
activities provide them with living interests that make 
children realize that they are a part of a real throbbing 
world. 

Following are a few suggestions as to how a rural teacher 
may begin this interesting geography study : 

1. Begin always with the known and seen. 

a. First lessons at school — teach directions as related to out-of- 
doors. Use section lines in relation to polar star. 

2. School and Home Geography. 

a. Locate and draw schoolgrounds and school — locate in relation 

to home farm, to other farms and the near-by trading 
center. 

b. Complete a study of all the space between school and home 

with proper appreciation of distance. 

c. Make a study of local topography. Utilize hills, creeks, ponds, 

etc., for classifying land and water forms. Use effects of 
rainstorm to teach origin of river-systems, land erosion, etc. 

3. History of the farm. 

a. Have children secure details of its history, making it a com- 
position exercise. 

4. Produce of the farm. 

a. Draw map of the farm — designate various field crops, 
meadows, woodlot, pasture, orchard, etc. 

5. Industries of the farm community — this should include the 

"trading center." 
a. Study the railroads and highways ; study such industries as 
dairying, mining, lumbering, quarrying, shipping of stock, 
grain and other produce. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 253 

6. Trip ta the trading center. 

a. What becomes of farm produce brought to town ? 
h. What is the origin of the coffee, tea, oranges, etc., that are 
brought home to the farm ? 

7. The larger study. 

a. On these known experiences build a superstructure of geog- 
raphy, using what in the mass of geographic materials is 
useful, eliminating all that is useless and encumbering. 



What Phases of History to Emphasize. — The purpose 
of history teaching is unquestionably the same whether 
undertaken in town or in the country. The primary aim 
is to develop intelligent patriotism and responsible citizen- 
ship. If history in its teaching fails to influence children 
in the schools to nobler living and higher ideals, to eager 
desire for places of responsibility in the citizenry of their 
country — the instruction has failed of its primary pur- 
pose. But history study should have other aims, also. 
History is a " record of past events." The panorama of 
races and nations as it unfolds before us is bound to broaden 
our minds and widen our horizons ; the solidarity of the 
race, the relation of the past to the present, the present to 
the future, by degrees must become apparent to us ; the 
examples and struggles of great men as they strive for high 
ideals in state and nation cannot but aid us in forming 
our own judgments and setting standards for our own 
ideals. 

Many of these aims, however, are not very marked in the 
early years of the child's life. The questions of immediate 
concern to us are: What history study has a rightful place 
in the rural schools ? What demands in history study can we 
make of the children ? What topics should be emphasized ? 
What topics eliminated ? 

History in our schools held an unimportant place prior 



254 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

to the opening of the Civil War period. The great national 
cataclysm aroused national patriotism as nothing before 
had been able to do. It was natural that the strong sec- 
tional feeling should be reflected in the way history was 
taught in the schools. New history textbooks came into 
use which laid undue emphasis on the Civil War with its 
causes, its bloody struggles, and the military heroes it pro- 
duced. Much of the study was partisan and fraught with 
sectional prejudice which, unfortunately, fanned the smol- 
dering fires of sectional feeling for many years. As might 
be expected, this new emphasis given military history had 
its effect on earlier periods of history as well. The Mexican 
War, the War of 1812, and particularly the Revolutionary 
War became reclothed with a new glamour. Every battle, 
every skirmish, was studied in detail. King George's Red 
Coats were painted in the darkest hues and children were 
taught exaggerated notions of American prowess in war and 
peace. Speaking frankly, the schools were not then, and 
have not always been since that time, truthful in the way 
history is taught. Often we have enlarged upon our na- 
tion's story, at other times we have found it convenient to 
suppress. Both textbooks and teachers have had a share 
in this. 

The scope and detail of the work in history has increased 
much the last half century as a result of this method of 
teaching. The periods of discovery, exploration, and settle- 
ment have been elaborated and magnified out of proportion 
to their present value. Within our own time has come the 
new national expansion with foreign colonization and great 
commercial and industrial growth. This has already forced 
a reduction in the number and details of battles and other 
unimportant facts, although the elimination process is 
merely begun. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 255 

Perhaps the greatest mistake in history teaching is the 
incHnation to feed immature children on the same kind of 
history stuff that we mete out to grown-up people, only in 
smaller portions and somewhat diluted. The writer has 
upon his desk at this moment half a dozen elementary school 
histories which contain such topics as tariff and currency 
reforms, party platforms, regulation of trusts, and the 
government of our insular possessions. These are topics 
for history specialists, not children. Very few of us in 
mature life are able to give a clear exposition of these topics 
without careful delving into books. Certainly, we should 
not expect the children in elementary schools to worry their 
minds about them. 

The citizen of to-morrow should have a good understand- 
ing of his nation's story, including its struggles against 
physical obstacles and the forces of nature, the great men 
that it has produced, with the lofty ideals for which they 
have striven — not alone the men of war but the men of 
peace, the men who produced our art and literature, our 
great labor-saving machines, who built up our industries, 
who spanned our continent with railway and telegraph 
lines, who are to-day conserving our natural and national 
resources and by their examples teach real patriotism. 

Just enough of the history of discovery, settlement, and 
early Colonial history should be given to furnish an intelli- 
gent basis for the later and more important epochs. This 
should be taught in the light of European backgrounds to 
American history. Only as the child understands the 
relation of European nations to the growth of the United 
States can he get a comprehension of the real significance of 
national events and their relation to the great brotherhood 
of man. Unimportant dates should be eliminated. Only 
the chief personalities of the early periods should be intro- 



256 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

duced into the story. The textbook can never be more than 
a leading thread to be placed in the hands of the children. 
It is a skeleton. The real flesh and blood of narrative, 
description, and biography must be given the children in 
the form of supplementary reading. The abbreviated 
summaries contained in the average textbook are sure to 
be more or less meaningless to the children without further 
reading. If, on the other hand, the discerning teacher 
selects the history topics of vital importance to the children 
and enlarges upon them by sending the pupils to the school 
library for further light, great things may be accomplished. 
Every rural school library should provide supplementary 
reading materials in history, including first of all biographies 
of our great men, and such other enriching materials as will 
create interest and satisfy the hunger of the child who has 
been starved on meaningless political campaigns, monetary 
panics, and foreign policies.^ 

Community Civics. — The rural community suffers from 
lack of government. Whatever government it has is 
scarcely adequate to modern conditions. There may be a 
township constable and a justice of the peace, chosen from 
the local electorate ; an assessor, perhaps, and road over- 
seers. Then the jurisdiction of the county sheriff extends 
to rural communities. But the system has proved wholly 
ineffective in our day. The government needed is not so 
much to protect life and limb as it is to protect the health 
and morals of the people, both for the country's sake and 
the city's sake. Rural communities are not policed at all. 
Social depravity and loose morals are the result in many 
rural places in spite of their naturally wholesome atmos- 
phere. Sociologists have repeatedly shown that rural 

^ For further suggestions on elimination in history, see the Iowa and Minnesota 
reports. 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 257 

vil-ages and the smaller towns have more vice than the 
cities where the social evils are segregated under police 
control. Rural communities usually lack health inspec- 
tion. Contagious disease is seldom properly controlled 
there. Nobody is charged with inspecting the sewage 
disposal of the farms. Occasionally carcasses of dead 
animals are permitted to contaminate the streams. If 
the milk supply is inspected at all, it is because the city has 
brought it about as a protection from its country neighbors. 

Rural America urgently needs government to make it 
physically wholesome and healthful ; to protect it from the 
social vice which finds, in the rural community's unprotected 
condition, an opportunity to debauch the unsuspecting 
youth ; to give it efficiency and economy in the manage- 
ment of its schools ; the construction and upkeep- of its 
public highways ; and in the organization of its quasi-public 
social-economic institutions and organizations. 

The rural school has not done what it can towards train- 
ing for citizenship. There is too much talking about citizen- 
ship in the schools, but too little living it from day to day. 
The writer, in his time of early school, was obliged to begin 
his preparation for citizenship by committing to memory 
the entire Constitution of the United States, beginning with 
the Preamble and ending with the last amendment. There 
is no objection to the children learning the essential points 
in their national and state constitutions ; but all this be- 
comes dead and meaningless if the study ends there. In 
the writer's class at school was a fine young fellow who 
memorized and explained the United States Constitution 
as ably as any one in the class. He could repeat and ex- 
plain the Article in the Constitution which prescribes the 
punishment for counterfeiting the securities and current 
coin of the United States — and eight years later he was 



258 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

convicted of making counterfeit half-dollar pieces and sent 
to the Federal penitentiary for many years. This unfor- 
tunate youth had learned civil government out of a book, 
but he had never been taught his duties, responsibilities, 
and opportunities in the civil community. 

Citizenship must be lived in the school from day to day. 
It can be made a part of every school subject, and really 
need not be taught as a separate subject, or, if it is, a prac- 
tical community civics should be used. The history period 
generally provides time enough for the book phases of the 
study in the one- teacher school. Geography, when well 
taught, emphasizes section lines and highways and road- 
overseers ; agriculture brings in division fences, windbreaks 
and questions of drainage areas ; arithmetic concerns itself 
with assessors and taxes ; and so on indefinitely. He alone 
is a great teacher of civics who is able to imbue his pupils 
with their great responsibilities and opportunities so that 
they will not fail later in life to respect the rights of their 
neighbors and keep out of all unjust disputes over line fences 
and drainage ditches and private roadways ; so that they 
will not revert to absent-mindedness when the assessor 
comes to value their real and personal property ; nor shirk 
their duty in road building and its upkeep, or insist that their 
own section line be graded before those of their neighbors. 

Men and women so trained will be ready, when time calls, 
to fill with ability the positions of school trustee, highway 
engineer, sanitary inspector, township supervisor, county 
commissioner, and other places of trust in a rejuvenated 
rural government. 

Music in Every Rural School. — In the days of the old 
singing-school master there was probably more song in the 
rural community than nowadays. To begin with, rote 
singing was considered an important part of school work ; 



TRADITIONAL SUBJECTS AND THE NEW EMPHASIS 259 

and all the young people joined the winter singing class at 
the schoolhouse as an important part of community social 
life. The '' song-birds in the heart " of our rural folk have 
been dumb, it is said, ever since the close of the district 
school period when the singing master departed for other 
fields of activity. 

The writer made a study of a large number of Danish 
elementary schools a few years ago, and found that no 
teacher could, under law, be licensed to teach who was 
unable to sing, or lead the singing. As a matter of fact, 
every teacher in the schools visited led in the song on a 
violin — and, it was not 2i fiddle. 

Every daily program in our schools has Its opening ex- 
ercises, which should comprise song. Scripture reading, and 
practical current topics — all made so attractive that the 
children will be eager to reach school In good time for the 
opening. Music should, of course, be an important phase 
of the opening exercises. The teacher can also find a little 
time in the afternoon for a singing exercise. Many schools 
now set aside twenty minutes for the study of music, three 
days a week immediately before closing school. 

If the teacher can read music — and what teacher should 
not know how? — he should teach the subject as a regular 
class exercise. Only in case of the teacher's inability to 
instruct in reading notes should rote singing be used. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Describe the curriculum of the early district school. What did Noah 
Webster's spelling book do for the schools ? 

What do you think of the "school of our childhood " ? To your mind, is 
it overdrawn ? Have you read the " Hoosier Schoolmaster " ? If so, how- 
do the two schools compare ? 

Show how the school curriculum is the result of gradual accretion in- 
stead of natural growth. 



26o THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

What is the plan of reconstruction ? Does it seem too radical ? 

How far should the elimination process be carried? What do you 
mean by a new emphasis on the old subjects ? 

State concisely what is meant by the redirection in the old subject 
matter. Give illustrations. 

Discuss the relative importance of language study and technical gram- 
mar in rural schools. Why has there been too much grammar and too 
little real language study in rural schools ? Do you agree to the suggested 
eliminations in grammar ? Explain. 

How do you make the language lessons interesting and vital? Do 
you correlate language work with other subjects? 

What is the place of spelling in rural schools ? State how you organize 
the spelling work. 

Give a full list of the supplementary reading materials that should be 
used in the schools. Do you use all of these? 

Is there danger of overdoing "writing" as a formal school exercise? 
Explain. 

What mathematics ought to be included in the rural course? What 
elimination of material would you make? 

State what you mean by a new emphasis on geography as taught in 
the school. 

Special Studies 

Summarize the early school curriculum as found in Johnson's Old- 
time Schools and School Books. 

Report to class on McMurry's What Omissions are Desirable in the 
Present Course of Study. 

Study Elimination of Subject Matter from either of the following 
reports : 

Iowa State Teachers' Association Committee on Elimination of Subject 
Matter; 

Minnesota Educational Association — Report of the Committee on 
Elementary Course of Study. 

Report on Pickard's Rural Education, Chapter VIT ; or Leake's The 
Means and Methods of Agricultural Education, pp. 67-72. 

Analyze the contents of any one of the following rural textbooks : 

Barnes' English in the Country Schools. 

Lewis' Farm-Business Arithmetic. 

Field and Nearing's Community Civics. 



CHAPTER III 

Nature Environment the Background of the New 

Curriculum 

The Right to a Living from the Land. — We have learned 
that the modern curriculum must be organized to prepare 
rural people for happy, healthful, and remunerative living 
on the land. For our present purpose it is best to reverse 
the order of these three and consider the last mentioned 
first. Food, clothing, and shelter come first in the list of 
human wants. Until they are provided, a people, whether 
savage or civilized, will pay little attention to the other 
desirable things in life. If modern agricultural people, there- 
fore, are to live well-rounded lives, they must first of all 
be put in position to make a good living out of the land. 

In the United States about seventy-five per cent of the 
nation's wealth comes immediately out of the land, in one 
form or another. The farmers are the greatest wealth- 
producers we have, although not the greatest wealth- 
keepers ; for, under the present system of agricultural 
organization, the farmers are able to keep only a small 
portion of this wealth for themselves. The schools must 
teach new things not alone in agricultural production, — 
acre for acre, — but must be of real assistance in preparing 
the products for the markets, and in their ultimate market- 
ing. 

When economic care shall have been lifted from the agri- 
culturist's heart and shoulders, he will be more ready than 

261 



262 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK , 

now to devote his leisure moments to the ethical and estheti- i 

cal sides of life. j 
The Naturalist Fanner, Our Greatest Farmer. — The 

writer once heard a great agriculturist say: ''You send i 

me a boy who knows nature and loves it, and I will return j 

him to you in a short while a great farmer ; for it takes a i 

lover of nature to make a real farmer." In making our j 
study of remunerative agriculture, we must begin with the 

nature environment in the midst of which the future agri- \ 

culturists dwell. Certainly it is true that there cannot be j 

really successful living in the country if the individual ! 

happens to be out of harmony with the wonderful phenomena \ 
of nature round about him. Those who get the most out of 
country life live close to nature. They know and love the 

created things — know field and stream, weather and soil, ' 
fish and birds and insects. The really good farmers are 
great naturalists. 

With us, rural children have lived largely in the very i 
heart of nature and yet remained strangers there. The 

Danish children study blade and leaf and flower from j 

earliest infancy. This is the work of the school and is begun I 

while the child mind is plastic, and sympathetic and loving. '. 

Such children are never in danger of being turned out by 1 

the school, shrewd, calculating men who own the soil chiefly j 

for the money they can wring out of it. In our country i 

we are unfortunately prone to judge things by the com- | 

mercial. standard. The so-called " practical " traits are | 

inherent in us. Here begins the work of the new teacher.^ i 

He must be able to take the rural child in its own little i 

world and lead it along the pathway of life, directing its ] 

native adaptabilities, sentiments, and powers, and there i 

develop in the child breast a sympathy with its environ- j 

^ See The American Rural School, pp. 14-15. • i 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 263 

ment, and in the child mind an understanding of nature's 
ways — then, once awakened to the surpassing beauties of 
rural environments, the American boy and girl will no 
longer be in danger of deserting the farm for the man-made 
glitter of the city. 

Study of Nature the Background on Which to Build. — 
Nature study should form the background for the greater 
part of the rural school curriculum. This may be made 
clear by outlining briefly the specific values of the subject, 
viz., economic, esthetic, social-ethical, religious, and edu- 
cational.^ 

Economic. By the time they are ready for concrete 
agriculture the children will be familiar with the common 
goods in nature and with its evil things. They should by 
that time know the value of pure air and pure water, the 
influence of sheltering forests and shade trees, the impor- 
tance to life on the farm of beneficent birds, insects, and 
batrachians. They should, on the other hand, be familiar 
with the pests constantly menacing farm life, such as 
destructive insects, birds, noxious weeds, and dangerous 
vegetable diseases. This phase of nature study appeals 
strongly to farm interests, and the effect is to draw ever 
closer the ties which bind the school and home through 
kindred interests. This will give us naturalist farmers. 

Esthetic. The teacher must bring the children under 
the spell of the sublime in nature. The still, small voice of 
nature should be permitted to commune with teacher and 
children through beautiful flowers and waving grasses, 
sheltering shrubs, and spreading trees. This can be realized 
only through the teacher's digging and planting side by 
side with the children. Here, amidst the earth smells and 
the calling of nature, they will become strong in their love 

^ The American Rural School, pp. 156-161. 



264 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

to live close to nature's heart. This will give us permanent 
country dwellers. 

Social and Ethical. A deep-seated respect for social and 
ethical law is needed in our country. The sooner children 
learn that they have social and moral obligations which are 
bound to be respected, the better it is for them. Girls and 
boys have a certain amount of energy which is bound to 
get an outlet somehow ; if early led to love nature, they will 
become its protectors. Such children will not vandalize 
nature ; when grown up they are sure to become good, law- 
abiding members of society. This makes for a morally 
sound citizenship. 

Religions. To love nature is to love nature's God. The 
teacher's manifest opportunity is to take advantage of the 
still voice in nature to reach the inner recesses of the child 
soul, to instill there a love for well-doing in looking after the 
happiness of God's created things, thereby attaining the 
child's happiness and for himself the crown of life. This 
makes for a religious country folk. 

Educational. While the naturalistic tendencies in edu- 
cation have been the slow growth of ages, we have at last 
come to realize that scholarship for scholarship's sake alone 
is untenable. The arts and sciences that do not affect the 
minds and habits of children in a way to furnish them with 
an increased disposition for service can no longer be upheld. 
Nature study is doing more than any other subject to over- 
come this disproportion between the theoretical and practi- 
cal in school life. This fits education to the needs of the 
child, instead of the child to the school. 

The discussion of values reveals the comprehensiveness 
of nature study. The first five years in school should gen- 
erally be devoted to the inspirational and general phases, 
leaving the more concrete work to the last three years of 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 265 

the course. This may find expression in beautifying school 
grounds and home grounds, in making school and home 
gardens, and school experimental plots, and in practical 
agriculture. 

Nature-Study Agriculture us. So-called '* Practical " Agri- 
culture. — Agriculture as it is often taught in the schools 
gets too much emphasis on the " practical " and '' use- 
ful " phases of the subject, to the disparagement of its all- 
important background — the nature environment. We 
can never lay too much stress upon this fact. There are those 
who have taken up agriculture as a concession to farmers 
and farming when, by very nature, it should always have 
been part of the school curriculum. Such teachers have 
hastened to make it a dollars-and-cents study ; regardless 
whether or not the children had the preparation, gleaned from 
contact with the great out-of-doors, to make their study from 
the point of view of little naturalists. Doctor L. H. Bailey, 
speaking on this subject, says: *' I would not approach the 
subject primarily from the occupational point of view, but 
from the educational and spiritual ; that is, the man should 
know his work and his environment. The mere giving of in- 
formation about agricultural objects and practices can have 
very little good result with children. The spirit is worth 
more than the letter. Some of the hard and dry tracts on 
farming would only add one more task to the teacher and 
the pupil, if they were introduced to the school, making the 
new subject in time as distasteful as arithmetic and gram- 
mar often are." ^ 

It was suggested above that the general phases of nature 

study should occupy the pupil's attention for the first five 

years in school, to be followed in the last three years with 

agriculture, or, more correctly speaking, nature-study agri- 

1 The Nature-Study Idea, p. 98. 



266 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

culture. It would be unfortunate at any time to lose sight 
of the nature-study phases ; although, of course, the agri- 
cultural application must become more and more apparent 
as the years advance. The entire eight years' course may 
be considered as a cumulative growth, unmarked by any 
break to show where nature study ends and agriculture 
begins. 

The teaching cannot be limited to a textbook or manual, 
although these are essential enough as leading- threads for 
the last year or so. Agriculture must be taught in the great 
laboratory of nature. The school ground, including ex- 
perimental plot and garden, must come first. Then there 
are orchards and cornfields and meadows which can be 
used ; and corn and cereals, barnyard fowls and other 
animals, to be brought to school and studied. Many find 
time to make their grounds beautiful, test all seed corn for 
the district, bud all the peach trees required to plant the 
orchards of the whole countryside, grow corn and vegetables 
for the annual contests, and still have an abundance of 
time for the other school tasks. 

The School Laboratory and Informal Instruction in Agri- 
culture. — The statements in the last paragraph are based 
on the premise that the school is part of a great agriculture 
laboratory, or, better still, nature laboratory. This in- 
cludes large school grounds, ample for play, with room for 
flower beds, shrubbery and trees, a common experiment 
plot and garden with individual plots for all the children. 
If, for any reason, such as short school year and difficulty 
of caring for it during the summer vacation, a school garden 
should prove impracticable, a home garden may be made 
to answer the purpose. 

In any case the instruction must be informal. There is 
no real objection to using a textbook as a manual, but mere 




New Educational Activities in Rural High Schools 

Horse judging, class of agriculture at the RoUo, Illinois, consolidated school; and 
milk testing in a smaller rural high school in the Middle West. 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 267 

textbook courses in agriculture are proving futile and should 
be discouraged. Indeed, it is just as practical to teach 
chemistry and physics from books alone as to teach a love 
and understanding of nature and its wonder works from 
within the covers of textbooks. 

Agriculture Teaching in the Schools of Ontario. — Agri- 
culture as a school subject is usually quite well organized in 
the better consolidated schools. In the one-teacher schools 
little has been accomplished. This is because we still lack 
teachers of peculiar preparation for their work ; because 
the school year is poorly planned ; and because agriculture 
is seldom considered as basic and vital in the course of study. 

Ontario and other provinces of the Dominion of Canada 
have succeeded better than our states have in teaching 
agriculture in the small schools. They were unsuccessful 
until textbook courses were abolished. Recently the sys- 
tem was changed. The study of agriculture has become 
attractive as a part of the daily experience of each child — 
an experience lived in the home and at school and on the 
highway between school and the home. The new agricul- 
ture, to quote a member of the Ontario Department of 
Education, " shaped itself from the nature study that was 
introduced into the schools about nine years ago. It is 
the common sense nature study for the country. Its text- 
book is the home, the garden, the field, the orchard, and the 
school farm or garden. Its course of study is the common 
plants and animals, the common work and interests of the 
common people who send their children to the common 
school. Its method is a natural one ; instruction is based 
on the pupil's natural interests, his present and prospective 
environment and his own activities." 

Ontario Agricultural Work Taken Seriously. — In On- 
tario agriculture through school gardening is no longer 



268 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

looked on as a fad or side issue to be cared for or neglected 
at the whim of the teachers and pupils. It is a serious part 
of the schools' tasks. 

When the work is first organized the secretary of the board 
of trustees and the teacher are both obliged to file separate 
notifications of their intentions to teach agriculture in the 
schools. This makes all parties concerned feel their responsi- 
bility. The school trustees must also make the necessary 
arrangements for its introduction and support, sharing with 
the teacher both the labor and interest. A definite time 
must be allotted to agricultural instruction. It must have 
a definite place in the program, and be taught not less than 
one hour each week. Needless to say, much more time than 
this is usually devoted to it. 

Complete accounts must be kept of the cost of the school 
garden work and be submitted at the close of the year to the 
department of education. The teacher must keep a record 
from week to week of just what phases of the work have 
been tried out, on special blanks provided for the purpose. 
The school register, indeed, contains such forms for every 
week in the year. At the close of the year the forms are 
forwarded to the minister of education through the local 
inspector. The report must show also how the garden has 
been planned ; how it has been cared for in the summer 
holidays ; and the condition it was in at school opening in 
September. 

The following outline shows the topics suggested for the 
instruction to be given in the fall and early winter months. 
The teacher is not expected to cover all of these themes, but 
to use those which are best suited to the local interests of the 
farming community. The teacher's report to the minister 
of education shows just what has been accomplished with 
each topic. 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 269 

September 

Plant studies. — i . Weed-study excursion — Preparation of mounted 
collections — Seed collections — Identification tests — Methods of eradi- 
cation. 2. Pupils' selection of corn in standing crop for seed and exhibi- 
tion. 

School fair. — Display of Progress Club's products (homemade articles, 
poultry, potatoes, oat sheaves, etc., by boys, and sewing, cooking, and 
canning by the girls), garden produce, collections, demonstration of 
experiments carried out at school — Judging and awarding of prizes of 
books, bulbs, etc. 

Insect studies. — The house fly, its structure, habits, life history, and 
siippression — Estimation of damage of codling moth. 

Reading. — Selection and purchase of agricultural books for school 
and home libraries. A farmer's library — Winter's reading plans. 



October 

Plant studies. — i. Collections of apples and other fruits for competi- 
tion and judging — Talk by local fruit grower — Testing pupils' ability to 
recognize varieties — Methods of packing and shipping. 2. Collections 
of injured or imperfect fruit — Causes and remedies. 

Farm and orchard work. — i. Thrashing — Storage of crops — Model 
barns — Silos — Estimates of yields — Determination of weights of 
bushels of grain. 2. Fall preparation of soil — Implements used and 
problems on cost of plowing, etc. 3. Fall pruning — Practice on neglected 
trees — Cover crops. 

Garden work. — Taking cuttings and plants from garden for school 
or home windows or wintering over — Planting bulbs in school border or 
forcing for winter bloom — Fall preparation of school garden, cleaning, 
manuring, and plowing. 

November 

Corn fair. — Collections of selected corn for competition — Judging 
competitions — Reading prize essays. 

Farm work. — Wintering the farm animals — Good stabling and up- 
to-date appliances — Feeding — Care of poultry — Best henhouses. 

Reading. — Class debates ; discussions on agricultural topics. 

Physical science. — Simple experiments on air. 



2 70 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

December 

Animal studies. — Breeds of farm poultry — Visits to poultry or live 
stock shows — Survey and census of local poultry industry — Marketing 
poultry. 

Reading. — Reviews of subjects read up by pupils in books, papers, or 
bulletins. 

Physical science. — Practical exercises with thermometers — Use of 
dairy thermometer — Weather records. 

Imperative Need of Reorganizing the School Year. — 

The most prevalent cause of failure in school gardening 
and agricultural experiments in our small schools is the 
short school year and its time of * beginning and ending. 
In the United States the school year usually begins in 
September and ends too early in the spring to permit vege- 
tation to gain a satisfactory growth before school closes. 
To this may be added the generally short tenure of the 
teacher. One or the other, or perhaps both, of these 
reasons may be persistently pointed to as the real cause of 
failure. 

In Ontario the school year begins January i of each year 
and closes in December. Under this arrangement the 
teacher in charge of the school when summer vacation begins 
will be back in the school next September. This makes 
possible a vital interest in the agricultural work. More 
than this, the Provincial Government pays teachers and 
school boards special grants ^ for maintaining the school 
gardens during the midsummer vacation. 

It would be well to change the time of opening our school 
year and have it begin with the close of the New Year holi- 
days. The school year should be at least ten months long 
— some day, no doubt, the nation will see the folly of the 
wastefully long vacations — and the teacher in charge of 

^ See Bureau of Education Bulletin 1915, No. 32, The School System of Ontario. 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 271 

the school should be held responsible for the gardens and 
experiments during the vacation months. 

The Smith-Hughes Act for industrial education could 
wisely use some of the funds it carries to promote agri- 
cultural education through school garden grants as in the 
Ontario system ; and, for that matter, to remunerate teachers 
taking special agriculture courses preparatory to devoting 
their energies to rural teaching. 

The Alternative of Home Gardens. — While educators 
are waiting for conditions to become more favorable, they 
have the alternative of organizing home gardens. If the 
teacher is judicious, he can accomplish a world of good for 
the home and school through this kind of gardening. This 
form of home work should be done entirely by the pupils, 
under directions from the teacher, who cooperates with the 
pupils' parents, who in turn lend guidance and encourage- 
ment to the children. 

The success or failure of the home garden depends largely 
on the ability of the teacher to organize and realize his plans. 
The teacher must have both enthusiasm and initiative. 
The work had best be entirely voluntary, no pupil being 
permitted to become a member of the garden club until 
his parents' cooperation has been secured. A full record 
of the garden work is to be kept by the teacher, including 
an outline drawing of the garden which should, if possible, 
be of uniform size for all the children. The vegetables to 
be grown should be limited to three or four varieties each 
season, all the children growing these sorts. A complete 
record of cost of production, yield, etc., should be kept by 
each child. The growing season should finally be crowned 
with a harvest home festival at the school, at which simple 
prizes may be awarded the winners of the best and largest 
yields. 



2 72 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

An outline for such a children's home garden is given 
below : ^ 

1. Location of plot: 

a. When — Preferably the preceding fall. 

h. Where — Some sunny well-drained place. 

c. Size — 9 feet by 15 feet, or 15 feet by 30 feet. 

2. Work: 

a. Preceding fall : 

(i) Clean up weeds, sticks, and stones. 

(2) Fertilize with well-rotted manure. 

(3) Spade. 
h. Spring : 

(i) Plan early what to grow. 

(2) Spade when frost is out of ground. 

(3) Work the soil well. 

(4) When weather is warm enough, sow seeds. 

(5) Determine depth of planting — small seeds, large seeds. 

(6) Determine distance apart — the rows. 

(7) Weed. 

(8) Thin. 

c. Summer : 

(i) Cultivate frequently. 

(2) Water — thoroughly when necessary — mornings, evenings. 

(3) Gather vegetables for table use ; keep account. 

d. Fall : 

(i) Harvest the crop. 

(2) Exhibit the best at a school fair, county fair, farmers' in- 

stitute, state fair. 

(3) Sell product. 

(4) Store away for winter. 

3. Friends of the garden — birds, toads, insects. 

4. Enemies of the garden. 

a. Chickens, grubs, cutworms, etc. 
h. Weeds — kind. 

Home and School Projects. — Home gardening is one of 
a large number of home and school projects which have 
1 From the Wisconsin State Common School Manual. 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 273 

recently become potent in making agriculture teaching 
concrete and practical in the schools. In many states agri- 
cultural life has been practically revolutionized through these 
industrial projects, and an efficiency unknown before has 
come to many a farm boy and girl. 

These industrial clubs had their origin, as told in another 
chapter, in the Southern States, under the fostering care of 
the Federal Government and the General Education Board. 
More recently it has spread to every section of the country. 
Successful industrial clubs are found almost everywhere ; 
some sustained by the Federal Government ; others under 
the direction of state departments of education ; and still 
others under local educational or other authority. The 
Federal Government has been more than liberal with its 
funds in organizing these projects. The only objection 
that might be raised is whether this important educational 
work ought not ahvays to be directed immediately through 
the schools. In several states and counties the home proj- 
ects are managed directly by the state departments of 
education or by the county superintendents. The states 
of Oregon and Iowa, and Cook County, Illinois, are notable 
examples of the latter class. 

Boys' and Girls' Industrial Work in Oregon. — This 
state puts its dependence in revitalized one-teacher schools 
rather than in consolidated schools. They are first stand- 
ardized ; then industrial clubs are organized to give them 
vital interest. '' Through these clubs," says State Super- 
intendent J. A. Churchill, '' the standard school plan, and 
the playground movement, the rural schools of Oregon are 
developing a happy, healthy, efficient group of boys and 
girls in every section of the state who are going to revolu- 
tionize country life in this state and make the farm home 
the most delightful place to live." 



274 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The work of organization is done by the State Depart- 
ment of Education through assistants who devote all their 
time to organizing clubs, holding community meetings, 
local industrial fairs, etc. The State Agricultural College 
lends assistance by publishing bulletins for the guidance of 
the club members. The United States Department of 
Agriculture is a third cooperating agent, which assists in 
planning the work, sends occasional speakers to important 
club rallies, and the like. But the important fact remains 
that the work has grown outward through the schools, 
binding them intimately to the farm homes. Twelve 
thousand rural children were club members the past year. 

A few of the club projects for boys and girls are : 

1. Canning. The canning of fruits, vegetables, etc. for home use or 
for sale. Enrollment not later than March 15, 191 7. 

2. Vegetable gardening. The growing of the greatest possible amount 
of vegetables at the least possible expense. Div. I. — A garden area of 
at least one square rod, but not more than fifteen square rods. Div, II. — 
A garden area of at least 16 square rods. Enrollment not later than March 

15, 1917- 

3. Poultry raising. Div. I. — The care and management of five or 
more laying hens for a period of at least six months. Enrollment not 
later than January i, 1917. Div. II. — The incubation of at least three 
settings of hen's eggs, and the care and management of the chicks for a 
period of at least eight months. Enrollment not later than March 15, 
1917. Div. III. — The management, for breeding purposes, of two turkey 
hens and one gobbler. Enrollment not later than March 15, 191 7. Div. 
IV. — The incubation of at least one setting of turkey eggs, and the care 
and management of the young turkeys for a period of at least six months. 
Enrollment not later than March 15, 191 8. 

4. Dairy herd record-keeping. Obtaining the milk, butter fat, and feed 
record of two or more cows for a period of at least eight months. Enroll- 
ment not later than January i, 191 7. 

School-Home Projects in Cook County, Illinois. — Prob- 
ably no county in the United States has so satisfactory a 




Home Projects in Oregon 

In the upper illustration an Oregon schoolboy is putting the finishing touches 
on a brooder for his mother's chicks; in the lower a schoolgirl is making her own 
dress. This new school work is doing much to draw home and school together. 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 275 

system of school-home projects as Cook County, IlHnois. 
Every school child in rural districts adjacent to Chicago, 
over ten years of age, is expected to take a course in school- 
home projects as a part of his regular school course. In 
this practical obligation lies the secret of success. There 
is nothing faddish in the way the projects are organized ; 
they are indeed a most serious part of school activities. 

County Superintendent Edward J. Tobin, the originator 
of the Cook County System, has been surprisingly successful 
in promoting the new kind of education under the very 
shadows of Chicago, because he has wisely limited his 
projects to the ordinary things of life, in the midst of which 
the children of Cook County grow up. Many a task which 
formerly was pure drudgery has become filled with a new 
dignity, a new meaning ; and is prosecuted with an energy 
and enthusiasm unknown in other school work. 

The thoroughness with which the projects are supervised 
further explains Mr. Tobin's success. For purposes of 
supervision, the county is divided into five districts, each 
in charge of a well-paid country life director, who does 
his work in cooperation with the children's parents. In 
addition, three or more of the most efficient teachers 
in each district are appointed to assist the directors in 
visiting and supervising the projects during the summer 
vacation. 

The agricultural school-home projects are classified as 
field and garden, poultry, and cow-testing projects. Others, 
intended particularly for girls, are cooking and sewing, and 
music projects. In addition to these there is an interesting 
course in business school-home projects for suburban chil- 
dren and for others who may elect them. 

If one should take a ride with a Cook County rural life 
director into his district, the first thing of interest to the 



276 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

visitor would be the uniformly large sign boards, marking 
the project plots that vary in area from one- tenth of an 
acre — the standard size — to one acre. The sign board 
may read, *' Betty Smith, member Cook County School 
Field Garden Club." Probably hers is an onion-growing 
project. In any case she is a happy girl, for she has found 
her vital interest in education. Her father and the super- 
visor have located her plot. The latter has checked up her 
own measurements of the plot. On their advice, too, she has 
selected onions as the most suitable crop. She first studied 
market conditions carefully. Now she knows that her crop 
will be in demand. 

Our little agriculturist must keep an itemized account of 
all receipts and expenditures, besides keeping records of 
daily observations, including time of planting, transplant- 
ing, thinning out, and maturing. In order to obtain a 
" school achievement credit " she is obliged to complete 
her project, and show a net profit on the basis of one dollar 
per square rod or less. It is well worth notice also that 
the profits belong to the little worker. They must be 
" banked, loaned or wisely expended." 

Once a year, on achievement day, valuable prizes are 
awarded the most successful project workers by one of the 
leading Chicago newspapers. Teachers who wish to know 
more in detail about this new form of education in Cook 
County should procure the little projects pamphlet issued 
by the county superintendent.^ 

The Iowa Plan of Industrial Clubs. — A discussion of 
boys' and girls' club work is hardly complete without a 
brief statement of how the new education is influencing 
school life in Iowa. The " Iowa Idea " in club work is 
well-known over the country as thoroughgoing and com- 

^ Address County Superintendent Edward J. Tobin, Court House, Chicago. 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 277 

prehensive in scope. In this state the leadership has been 
taken by the State Agricultural College at Ames, the state 
club leader being a member of the school's extension staff. 
From small beginnings as corn-growing organizations the 
clubs have increased in membership and variety of projects 
until many thousand boys and girls in every Iowa county 
are now engaged in one or more of the twelve recognized 
projects divisions. '' The activities," to quote Mr. E. C. 
Bishop, the state leader, '' include home project work, and 
duties of the house, shop, barn, garden, and field. It pro- 
vides work and study with plant and animal life, with the 
objective, and with materials and processes in their natural 
surroundings. It combines activities in their relation to 
the life interests of the individual in his home and com- 
munity associations. The work is practical because it 
deals with actual things, conditions, and accomplishments. 
It has high ethical value due to the reflexive effect of work 
enthusiastically undertaken, and performed with intelli- 
gence and a high degree of efficiency." 

The Iowa system is noted for the thoroughness of its 
organization. It embraces the club worker, his teacher, 
father, and mother, and the local and state leader. That 
the work is vastly more than utilitarian can be realized 
from a casual study of the projects divisions which are 
organized as club projects (with twenty-four subdivisions), 
agriculture, home economics, manual training, home duties, 
health habits, self-culture, sunshine work, business practice, 
thrift credit, home and school record, and community wel- 
fare. Among the most suggestive of the twenty-four club 
projects are acre corn club, garden and canning (tomato) 
club, poultry club, cooking club, baby beef club, bee 
club, farmer boy club, home girl club, and father and son 
club. 



278 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The details of this remarkable work cannot be given in 
these pages. Detailed information can, however, be pro- 
cured from the Iowa State club leader.^ 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

Show just why food, clothing, and shelter must be provided before a 
human being cares to devote much time to the other good things in Hfe. 

How do you explain that while our agriculturists are great ''wealth- 
producers" they are poor "wealth-keepers"? 

What is your definition of a naturalist farmer? 

Teacher, were you reared in the country? Have you a genuine love 
for your nature environment? Are you in honest sympathy with farm 
life ? How do you set about increasing this love of environment ? 

Is it true that American rural children are less in harmony with nature 
than the children of Continental Europe ? How do you account for this ? 
What is the remedy? 

Explain how you teach agriculture. How much is textbook work? 
Does your school have a terrarium, a window box, or other simple indoor 
laboratory ? 

How do you like the term nature -study agriculture ? 

Point out the chief reasons why agriculture through school gardening 
has been successful in Ontario, while with us little headway is being made. 

Give some good reasons why our school year should begin with the New 
Year and close in December ? 

Have you organized home gardens for your pupils ? Get and study the 
following bulletins from the United States Department of Agriculture : 

No. 154, The Home Fruit Garden. 

No. 218, The School Garden. 

No. 255, The Home and Vegetable Garden. 

Point out some of the educational advantages of club work to the 
pupils. What kind of club have you organized through your school? 

Special Studies 

Read all the poetry you can find dealing with nature — not so much 
that which talks about nature as that which breathes nature. Use L. H. 
Bailey's poems found in The Rural Outlook Set, and Bryan's Poems of 
Country Life. Report to class. 

^ Address ]\lr. E. C. Bishop, State Club Leader, Ames, Iowa. 



ENVIRONMENT THE BACKGROUND OF CURRICULUM 279 

Give a detailed exposition of Bailey's "Nature-Study Agriculture" 
in The Nature-Study Idea, pp. 93-116. 

Procure United States Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 281 
on Correlating Agriculture with the Public School Subjects in the Northern 
States. Show the class how this pamphlet can be used advantageously 
in daily class work. 

Make a careful study of Leake's "Teaching Agriculture in the Rural 
Schools " in his The Methods and Means of Agricultural Education, pp. 
65-83. 



CHAPTER IV 
The Manual Arts and Home Economics 

Education in Relation to Food, Clothing, and Shelter. — 

The earth responds quickly and abundantly to the agricul- 
turist who treats it well and respects its holiness. To him 
it supplies food, clothing, and shelter, or at least the riches 
with which to procure these necessities. It is altogether 
too true that many rural people, even though they may be 
successful in accumulating wealth from the land, do not 
know how to convert this wealth into proper food, suitable 
clothing, or desirable shelter. 

Daily food is a necessity. Our health and length of life 
depend upon it. Three times a day at least the farmer and 
his family assemble for their meals, on which they depend 
for health and other satisfactions in life. Unappetizing, 
heavy food, of little variety and poorly prepared, plays a 
greater role than many will believe in ill health, bad temper, 
and ultimate failure. Rural people have had their full 
share of these evils. We can see it is not enough to produce 
abundant crops ; we must know how to manufacture them 
for the markets and know how to prepare in a wholesome 
way the bounties of the land that are immediately available 
for our daily food. The modern school must teach every 
girl and every boy what to eat, how to eat, and how to pre- 
pare what they eat. 

Then comes the question of clothing. Here also health 
is a consideration, although not the only one. An ex- 
perienced traveler recently commented, in the writer's 

2S0 



THE MANUAL ARTS AND HOME ECONOMICS 281 

presence, on the way our ruralists dress. '' Of all the civi- 
lized people that I know," he said, '' the American farmer 
— wealth and ability considered — is the most improperly 
dressed." The statement may be a little strong, but cer- 
tain it is that too little consideration is given to seasonal 
changes and kind and variety of clothing. It is not unusual 
to find the same grade of clothing worn both summer and 
winter, the main difference being in the amount worn. 

With the passing of the household economy farmer rural 
people have lost the benefits that come with spinning the 
yarn and weaving the cloth, and fashioning the homespun 
into garments. In those days the average person could 
distinguish the spurious from the genuine, the good close 
weave from the open worthless weave, and could calculate 
economy and waste in clothing with reasonable precision. 
Here, again, the new school has a great opportunity. Every 
boy and girl should be able to select his own clothing, and 
get it seasonable and of good quality for the price paid. 
Every girl should be taught to select the material for her 
clothing and cut, fit, and make the garments, and assist in 
making the clothing for the younger members of the family. 

Finally, the new school will teach all that need be known 
about human shelter. It will teach how to plan a real farm 
home, and all that is necessary to know about its arrange- 
ment, its labor-saving conveniences, and its sanitation. It 
will teach how to keep the home clean and wholesome, and 
protect it from disease; and, finally, how to make its sur- 
roundings attractive and comfortable, so that people will 
be glad to make it " home." 

Comprehensiveness of the Industrial Arts. — Industrial 
arts, in a comprehensive sense, embrace general industrial 
work, manual training, and home economics. Of these, 
general industrial work should have a prominent place in 



282 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK ; 

every rural school program for all pupils throughout the ; 

first five years. Thereafter, for the last three years the ' 

work may differentiate as manual training for the boys and | 

home economics for the girls. i 

It is difficult to find time for a good, constructive course \ 
of industrial work in the one-teacher school, although some 

efTective work can be done. In the consolidated school the ' 

courses may be outlined definitely and taught as success- ; ' 

fully as in town schools. The two-teacher rural school can i 
organize its industrial program very satisfactorily, particu- 
larly if one of the teachers is a man. He can give the 

work in agriculture and manual training, while the woman \ 
teacher instructs in home economics and general industrial 

work for the lower grades. j 

General Industrial Work. — For some years American ) 

schools have attempted to meet the demands of pre-voca- ; 

tional education with various forms of manual training ; ; 

but in this work too much stress was placed on dexterity : 

and finish, and too little on the subject matter or content \ 

side. In the new education, with its emphasis on social \ 
efhciency, more and more attention is given to interpreting 
industrial life — the content, the materials and processes, 

now get the stress, which was formerly placed on skill and ; 
finish. 

Probably the most satisfactory outline of industrial work 

for elementary schools available to rural teachers is found ' 
in the Baltimore County Course of Study. Here the general 
industrial work is planned to cover the first five years of 

the school course. To quote from its pages :^ ''In the | 

first three grades the work centers mainly around the activi- j 
ties of the home and the community, and these activities 

^ See Course of Study, Public Schools, Baltimore County, IMaryland, 1915, pp. j 

590-591. \ 



THE MANUAL ARTS AND HOME ECONOMICS 283 

are imitated in projects made of paper, cardboard, clay, and 
other materials which are easily manipulated. Too much 
emphasis should not be placed upon accuracy, precision, or 
technical excellence of a high order in any phase of construc- 
tive work in these grades, nor should the industrial idea 
be the most dominant ; but the chief aim should be the 
expression of ideas in industrial materials and the growth 
of interest, intelligence, and judgment in occupational 
activities going on in the child's immediate environment. 
In the fourth and fifth grades the industrial motive should 
receive increasing emphasis and processes employed should 
be as far as possible typically illustrative of those actually 
used in the industries." 

In some schools industrial work is treated as mere busy 
work. This is unfortunate. A little paper cutting and 
folding, a little weaving, and a little rafiia work, mean so 
little if they are taught out of their industrial setting. The 
important materials of all industry are, (i) foods, (2) tex- 
tiles, (3) paper, (4) woods, (5) metals, (6) clays and other 
earth products. Out of these man has built his industrial 
life. In order to reconstruct this it is necessary that the 
children, while they cut and weave and mold, learn how 
these materials are produced, manufactured, and distributed. 
All of these call for constant correlation with history, 
geography, nature-study, agriculture, art, and mathematics. 

Even in the one- teacher school general industrial work 
should be given the first five years. The program can be 
arranged to include simple exercises for the younger pupils 
while the older ones are devoting their time to manual train- 
ing or home economics. The work should include paper 
folding and construction, rafiia, weaving, and clay modeling. 
For details of such a course, the teacher is referred to a list 
of books given in the bibliography. 



284 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Manual Training in the Consolidated Schools. — As the 

farm lad advances to the sixth or seventh year in school he 
should begin a practical course in manual training. There 
should be no mistake about the word " practical " in this 
connection. Too often manual training has been limited 
to making some highly finished or elaborated knickknacks as 
necktie hangers and picture holders. The boy on the farm 
should have opportunity to try his hand at all the commonly 
practiced manual activities essential to successful agricul- 
tural life. The school should teach him to work in wood, 
in leather, in metal, and in cement. The new training 
course is not limited to woodwork, nor need mission fur- 
niture be the favorite outlet for the young woodworker's 
energies. 

Every consolidated school should organize its manual 
training work on the basis of actual community require- 
ments. The workshop need not be equipped with expensive 
machinery. Plenty of bench room for woodworking, a 
small forge, a corner for harness repairs, and some ground 
space for cement work, are really all that are required. The 
boys should also be encouraged by their teachers and parents 
to set up a workshop on the farm to do home projects work 
and farm-place repairs. 

The boys should be taught to handle ordinary working 
tools. They should be taught to repair tools and farm ma- 
chinery, to construct work-benches, wagon-boxes, non- 
saggable gates, poultry colony houses, testing screens, etc. 

The course in metal working should be no less practical. 
Every farmer can save time and expense by knowing how to 
temper and sharpen his own plowshares and set his own 
horseshoes. This kind of work is being offered in scores of 
large rural schools over the country. 

For similar reasons, the schools are beginning to give 



THE MANUAL ARTS AND HOME ECONOMICS 285 

instruction in cutting, fitting, sewing, and oiling leather. 
Every farm boy should know how to repair broken harness, 
and in an emergency the drive-belt of his stationary engine 
or threshing machine. 

Cement as a building material has in recent years become 
so popular that some people like to think of this as the 
cement age. Here, also, the rural school should be of direct 
use by offering simple work in cement mixing, in laying 
foundations and walks, in molding plain cement blocks, fence 
posts, drinking troughs, and other useful things for the 
farm. 

Manual Training in the One-Teacher School. — But 
what about the small school ? Can it undertake this kind 
of work? That depends entirely on conditions. Some 
small schools are known to do exceptionally good work in 
manual training ; others have failed utterly. 

The first requisite is a teacher — usually, though not 
necessarily, a man — who understands manual training and 
is able to sense the demands of the farm home in this re- 
spect. For a tyro to undertake the work is sure to end in 
failure. 

Another important aid is the district or county super- 
visor of industrial work. He can generally visit the school 
often enough to plan the projects with the teacher and have 
general oversight of the course. 

The writer has in mind a county in northern Minnesota, 
where he visited forty or more one- teacher schools two years 
ago. Practically every school had two manual training 
benches set against the wall under the high closely banked 
windows, or in their own separate rooms. Of eighty-five 
one- and two-teacher schools in the county fully sixty had 
benches and good sets of tools. A county industrial super- 
visor directed the boys and girls in the manual training 



286 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

classes. He traveled the rounds of the schools, and re- 
quired certain definite tasks to be done in his absence, the 
directions being given in multigraphed sheets sent out from 
his office. Like work is done in every state of the nation. 
Further illustrations may be gleaned from another of the 
writer's books. ^ 

Home Economics in Consolidated Schools. — The pur- 
pose of home economics study may be re-stated in the fol- 
lowing phrases : 

1. To teach the girls an appreciation of modern agri- 
cultural life, and prepare them to become efficient home- 
makers ; 

2. To teach the intimate relation of home sanitation, of 
proper food and correct clothing, to everyday health ; 

3. To train the future housekeepers in the value of time, 
money, and material ; 

4. To aid in forming habits of neatness, orderliness, and 
industry ; 

5. To teach the girls to apply business methods to home- 
making. 

The courses of study are organized under three heads : 
as food, clothing, and textiles. All rural schools can offer 
home economics in some of its phases, though the larger 
consolidated schools alone can do the work adequately. If 
the pupils have taken the general industrial work In the 
lower grades, they will have had a survey of the entire indus- 
trial field. Including considerable reference to the three 
topics of food, clothing, and textiles, which become the 
specific study topics from the sixth grade onward. 

It is Impracticable to outline In detail here what the 
courses should embrace. The following topics are in any 
case suggestive of the scope of the subject. 

^ See The American Rural School, pp. 246-252. 



THE MANUAL ARTS AND HOME ECONOMICS 287 

a. Course in foods} 

1 . The three essentials to Hfe — fresh air, pure water, good food. 

2. The kitchen. 

3. The stove. 

4. Fuels. 

5. Water. 

6. Food — source, the ''five food principles" and their function in 

the human body. 

7. Selection of food. 

8. Practice in the preparation of food materials. 

9. Preparing food to meet special conditions. 

10. Preparation and serving meals. 

11. Sanitation and hygiene. 
h. Course in clothing and textiles. 

1. Equipment — history, manufacture, and care of utensils. 

2. Physiology and hygiene — personal, hygiene of clothing. 

3. Study of textiles — fiber, production and manufacture, tests for 

identification. 

4. Planning garments. 

5. Commercial patterns. 

6. Making garments. 

7. Care of clothing. 

8. Simple embroidery. 

The Hot Lunch, a Means of Approach to Home Economics 
in Small Schools. — The one- teacher school can at best 
offer only Informal work in home economics. If a man 
teacher is in charge, he will probably be obliged to limit 
himself to informal work in connection with hygiene and 
sanitation, on such topics as hygienic clothing, and effect 
on the human body of proper and improper food. He can 
also do some practical work in a study of textiles in his 
opening exercises. But the average woman teacher has 
greater opportunities for effective work. There is certainly 
not a single rural school where some practical work in sewing 
cannot be done. As for cookery, is there a single school so 

^ Adapted in part from the Baltimore County Course of Study. 



288 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

small, so helpless, that it cannot approach this phase of 
home economics through the noonday hot lunch? 

Primarily, of course, the hot lunch, in the small school, is 
popular because we are all learning that a warm meal at 
midday vitally affects the child's efficiency, and is a wonder- 
ful aid in the afternoon's study. It is true, at the same time, 
that in many communities this innocent little lunch has 
been the means of bringing about a satisfactory cooperation 
of school and home. In many instances on record the hot 
lunch has been the first step in organizing a school-home 
economics course of as great benefit to the farmer's wife as 
to his children. 

The following facts in regard to the hot lunch problem 
should be understood by all teachers : First, it is not ad- 
visable that an entire meal or elaborate and time-consuming 
dishes be prepared ; next, much may be accomplished with 
very little and with very simple equipment ; and in the 
third place, the work necessary to the preparation and 
serving of a hot dish affords excellent opportunity to instill 
habits of consideration, courtesy, order, neatness, deftness, 
and dispatch, without making any one of these subjects 
unduly prominent. Last, but by no means least, some- 
thing of the true value of foods, cost of foods, sanitation, 
and principles underlying food preparation and preserva- 
tion may be brought out. Common duties of the home may 
be inculcated, and simple but good table manners may be 
practiced each day at school as well as at home. The situa- 
tion, however, will require a teacher of ingenuity and of 
enthusiasm in her work. 

The amount of equipment necessary for successful prepa- 
ration and serving of a hot dish for the noon hour depends 
upon the size and equipment of the schoolroom. Some 
schoolrooms have a cupboard which can be used for uten- 



THE MANUAL ARTS AND HOME ECONOMICS 289 

sils, and have room for a table and a stove. But if no such 
articles are available, some things must be purchased. The 
simplest equipment necessary to the preparation and serv- 
ing of soups, chowders, cereals, stews, and cocoa includes : 

I 2 -burner blue flame oil stove $6.00 

I closed cupboard (home-made) 

I 2 -gallon granite kettle .50 

I cover to fit kettle 15 

I granite ladle 10 

I teakettle 1.50 

I tin measuring-cup 05 

I teaspoon 10 

I tablespoon 10 

I pint bowl 10 

I paring-knife 10 

I butcher knife 25 

I large fork i 10 

1 asbestos mat 10 

2 dish pans 40 

4 dish towels 20 

I dish wash-cloth 

I box salt 05 

I box pepper 05 

I vegetable brush 05 

I cup and one teaspoon for each child 

Supplementary List 

I 2 -quart granite pan 

I quart measure 

I extra tablespoon, teaspoon, and paring knife 

I small plate for each child 

I Dover egg-beater 

I coarse sieve 

I potato masher or ricer 

1 double-boiler 

2 napkins for each child (desirable) 



290 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The cupboard and drop shelf can be made by the older 
boys in their manual training work. The girls can like- 
wise do their share toward the equipment ; for there are 
towels and dishcloths to be made. This correlates the hot 
lunch and simple sewing. 

After the equipment has been provided the question of 
procuring food materials must be solved, (i) The school 
board may pay for all the staple materials, the teacher acting 
as purchasing agent ; (2) the teacher may axt as purchasing 
agent, and school patrons pay proportional amounts ; 
(3) each family may furnish material, as milk, vegetables, 
cereals, etc., in turn. Such things as salt, pepper, and a 
small amount of flour should be purchased and kept on hand. 
The first method is the most businesslike, and in most 
cases the most satisfactory for all concerned.^ 

Home Projects for One-Teacher Schools. — Much suc- 
cessful industrial work is done through the one-teacher 
schools, as home projects. The foregoing chapter has shown 
definitely how state departments of education and other 
agencies have come to the teacher's aid in the home projects. 
Any wide-awake teacher can get all the advice and assist- 
ance necessary, by asking for it. Nothing has done more, 
in a practicable way, to revitalize the small school than 
just this kind of educational task. Note, for example, the 
two illustrations opposite page 274. The upper is Guy 
Staiger, a practical Oregon schoolboy, who worked last year 
in three projects, — poultry raising, gardening, and manual 
training; the lower is Ruth L. Dannett of Polk County, 
Oregon, prize winner in her county sewing club contest. 
These pupils are beyond the age ordinarily found in the small 
school — the new interests have held them to their tasks 

1 For further information, see " Hot Lunches in Country Schools," Bulletin 
No. 3, 19 1 2, State Normal School, Cheney, Washington, Send for it. 



THE MANUAL ARTS AND HOME ECONOMICS 291 

and their books, and have been instrumental, in their case 
at least, in raising the level of school attendance several 
years. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

What can you say of education in relation to food, clothing, and shelter ? 

Describe a typical farm meal in your community ; the clothing worn. 
What are your comments ? 

What is meant by industrial arts? Distinguish between industrial 
education and vocational education. 

Can it be said that manual training and home economics as described 
in this chapter have some "vocational" aspects? 

Just what industrial work have you planned for your elementary 
grades ? 

Make a statement of the possibilities for manual training in your school. 

If you are a woman teacher in a one-teacher school, you may be ex- 
pected to do informal work at least in one or more phases of home econom- 
ics. Do you have daily hot lunches ? What other work of similar nature 
do you give the pupils? 

Is it necessary to wait for consolidation before offering industrial work ? 
(See The American Rural School, pp. 247-252,) 

Show how cooking lessons in the small school should be the outcome 
of the hot lunch work. (See Home Education Letter No. i, U. S. Bureau 
of Education, 191 5.) 

Special Studies 

Study the "Suggestions for the teaching of industrial arts in the 
grades" in the Baltimore County Course of Study, pp. 590-593. 

Read, "General Industrial Work," in Pickard's Rural Education, 
pp. 210-216. 

Summarize the contents of one of these excellent texts in the new 
manual training : 

Brace and Mayne's Farm Shop Work; or Blackburn's Problems in 
Farm Woodwork. 



CHAPTER V 
Hygiene and Rural Community Sanitation 

The Right of the People to Be Healthy. — We have dis- 
cussed education in relation to man's food, clothing, and 
shelter. Let us now consider the new curriculum in re- 
lation to man's health. The reader will recall that the 
health problem is included in our modern school require- 
ment — that rural people must be assisted to live happy, 
healthful, and remunerative lives. Every child has a right 
to be born into the world of clean parentage and sound of 
body and mind. The child has a similar right to grow to 
maturity in wholesome physical surroundings where nature 
can have full sway, and demonstrate that man is created in 
the image of God. 

Unfortunately, ignorance and vice have held the race for 
ages in a relentless thraldom, thwarting the purpose of 
nature. Ignorance more than vice is responsible for the 
appalling waste in life to which humanity has been subject. 
Even religion has taught that the body is a thing of evil, 
to be subjected to harsh discipline, to free the spirit for 
loftier motives. This medieval contempt for the demands 
of bodily health still prevails in' some places, although as a 
people we appreciate that the nation's greatness and our 
share in the world's work will be limited only by the physical 
fitness of the people engaged in the combat. The average 
citizen needs to be enlightened on the conditions of national 
health, and of his own health in its individual and national 
relations. The surprising amount of disregard for in- 

292 



HYGIENE AND RURAL COMMUNITY SANITATION 293 

dividual and community health is due largely to the in- 
different methods of teaching hygiene in the schools. 

Health Conditions of Country and Town Compared. — 
The economic losses from preventable disease in our country 
is needlessly large, although modern medical science is 
making steady headway in the struggle, with a promise of 
ultimate victory when popular education shall have done 
its part by dispelling the ignorance and false modesty prev- 
alent in regard to personal health. The one outstanding 
fact in the development of public health in the United 
States is that the rural half of the nation does not keep 
pace with the urban half. 

Rural people have presumed too much on the natural 
healthfulness of their environment, and have neglected to 
make the most of the advantages they have over the city. 
From time immemorial writers have pointed out that coun- 
try people are healthier, more robust, and of longer life than 
those of the city. In the latter place man has run greater 
risk of disease than in the rural village and open country. 
That this has been so, is fully substantiated by facts. But 
since the establishment of modern medical science and 
health inspection, conditions have changed materially. 

Modern sanitary science has wrought wonders in some 
of the largest cities, which now show lower death rates than 
neighboring towns and open country districts. Our rural 
population has gradually filled the land ; meanwhile this 
fallacious belief in beneficent nature's ability to care for 
those who live in her fold has done much to hinder the 
progress of sanitary science in the country. In a popu- 
lation of 100,000,000 people those dangerously sick in the 
United States number about 3,250,000, with annual deaths 
of about 1 ,600,000, one-half being from diseases nearly wholly 
preventable. 



294 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



HEALTH DEFECTS 

City Children and eountry Children Compared 



New York City 

330. ITS 

Z30.'\32. 

10% 



Vcrsois 
TiunJ defective. 



1831 l^urol Pistri< 

of Penns/lvan 

Z94. 4Z.7 

22.1. 785 

75% 



School C/!i/c/ren in 25 Ofies ofVn/teJ States 

Versus 

C/}//dren /> :^ural Sckoo/s of 



Mr. Roosevelt's Commission on Country Life, in 1908, 
found that '' easily preventable diseases hold several million 
country people in the slavery of continuous ill health." Be- 
cause they disregard simple hygienic laws of drainage, 
water supply, pure air, etc., country people die in large 
numbers from typhoid fever, pneumonia, malaria, hook- 
worm, and pellagra, 
not to mention the 
enormous economic 
loss due to impaired 
health. 

Graphic Report of 
the American Med- 
ical Association. — 
What is said in the 
foregoing paragraph 
is fully corroborated 
in an investigation by 
the Joint Committee 
on Health Problems^ 
into comparative 
health defects of city 
children and country 
children. The ad- 
joined chart, which 
formed a part of the 
Joint Committee's health exhibit at the recent Panama- 
Pacific Exposition, is based on two important comparisons 
— school children in New York City and in rural Penn- 
sylvania, and school children in twenty-five cities of 

^ The Joint Committee on Health Problems in Education of the National 
Council of the N. E. A. and the Council on Health and Public Instruction of the 
American Medical Association. 



Massachusetts -Idaho -Virginia- New jersey- Pennsylvania 

S 10 IS M fii JO 3S -to 45 SO 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 












-'«: 




5 


fff 




~ 


P 
^° Er 


larked ■ 

K 

Counir 
Cty 


re<=+K 
on si Is 

LY 

/HI 






=; 


^m 




■ 2/.^ 


fldenc 

^e Pef 


^Ei 










■■i 


ggH 




\7J ^ 


?r— 






, Pedi 
Is 




■ /'./ 


IHa 


■§/£ 




!■ 


*« "Fa 
Spina 
Main 

SkinO 
Menta 
Hearf 


nlar^e 
Defe 
ICur 
tritioi 
I'la 

sease 
Pefecl 


JGIan 

ts 

ature 




II 



Fig. 



29. 



HYGIENE AND RURAL COMMUNITY SANITATION 295 



the United States and in rural Massachusetts, Idaho, 
Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In the former 
case, in 330,179 New York children the appallingly large 
number of 230,432, or 70 per cent of the children ex- 
amined, proved to have health defects ; but even worse was 
the showing of rural Pennsylvania, where in a total of 
294,427 children ex- 



HYGIENIC CONDITIONS inRURALSCHOOIS 

Survey of 109 Schools in 
I^ew York - New Jersey - Connecticut 
Vermont - Marj/land 



amined 221,785, or 
75 per cent, had simi- 
lar defects. In the 
latter case, as the 
chart shows, the 
country children — 
represented by the 
upper black bar — 
showed a larger per 
cent of defects in a 
total of eleven out 
of thirteen common 
physical ailments. 
In pediculosis and 
skin disease only did 
the city children get 
a lower rating. 

The question next 
arises, what are the ^^' ^°" 

facts of the hygienic conditions under which these children 
are educated ? What are the physical conditions of the 
average rural schools? To these queries also the Joint 
Committee has its answer, as is ascertained from the above 
chart of hygienic conditions in rural schools. 

The Committee made a painstaking investigation of the 
hygienic conditions in 109 rural schools in New York, New 




yniTst/ga/ioii niiiifr III /OI3 
%^ l//ie sJoiiit C*>'iiiiiutUr on iftcn/t/i ^yVoM.nii 



296 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maryland, with the 
results shown in the chart. These states have school con- 
ditions at least as good as the average, yet the condition of 
the privies — the breeding place of viciousness — was 
found almost intolerable, and the essentials of proper light- 
ing, ventilation, and heating proved to be grossly neglected. 

Health Inspection in Pennsylvania Rural Schools. — 
Pennsylvania has probably done more than any other 
state to disclose the true facts of hygienic conditions in its 
rural communities ; and once found, to remedy the defects. 
The General Assembly of 191 1 made provision for medical 
inspection by passing an optional inspection law, letting the 
local school trustees determine the advisability of making 
the examination. The work of inspection is in charge of 
the State Commissioner of Health, and must be done by 
successful practitioners under his direction. 

It is of interest to note how, at first, a majority of the 
directors of the 2236 rural districts ^ " clung tenaciously 
to the idea that country boys and girls must of necessity 
he sound and healthy." Many directors went so far as to 
w^rite the State Health Commissioner, declining to have 
their schools examined for the reason that " as the majority 
of children in our district are native born, medical inspec- 
tion of schools would be a waste of time and money." These 
school officers have had occasion recently to change their 
mind on this subject, since the examination shows that 
94.95 per cent of the '' native born " children are defective 
in one way or another. 

The medical examinations have now become state- 
wide. During the school year 1914-15, 469,199 children in 
17,823 schoolrooms were examined. This covered examina- 
tions in 2134 rural districts in a possible total of 2236. 

^ Each representing a township with all its rural schools. 



HYGIENE AND RURAL COMMUNITY SANITATION 297 

Of this number 335,427, or 71.48 per cent, were classed as 
defective, 318,484, or 94.95 per cent, were native born, and 
16,943, or 5.05 per cent, were foreign born. This definitely 
disposes of the old claim that our native-born sons and 
daughters always have the best health as a birthright. 
Eighty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-eight chil- 
dren were found to have defective vision; 15,600 had 
defective hearing; 22,837, defective breathing; 12,322, 
defective tonsils; and 212,708, defective teeth. Some of 
the children were afflicted with many of these ailments, 
others with only one. 

It is obvious that the Pennsylvania medical inspection 
had to go hand in hand with a sanitary inspection of the 
premises where the children attend school. Insanitary or 
unhygienic conditions in school buildings and their surround- 
ings invariably foster disease and ill health. The survey, 
therefore, required the inspector to give particular care to 
sanitation, lighting and heating, water supply, privies, and 
the disposition of waste. On the basis of this investigation, 
12,336 rural school buildings were declared insanitary ! 

Pennsylvania has rendered its people and the country at 
large a marked service by its medical and sanitary survey. 
For it is well to bear in mind that many other states are no 
better in these respects than is the Keystone State. The 
great thing is, that once we have acknowledged our short- 
comings there is hope for remedy. 

Compulsory Medical Inspection a Reasonable Require- 
ment. — The relation of the child's physical condition to 
school efficiency is of greatest importance. A child who 
finds it difficult to read or to see what is on the blackboard 
cannot do good work in school. One whose hearing is bad, 
or whose breathing is partially obstructed, will be dull and 
listless. Certainly little should be expected of a child who, 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



by reason of bad teeth, has digestive ailments or suffers from 
malnutrition. 

What better illustration can be given to show the impor- 
tance of medical inspection of school children than this 
statement of the corrective results in the case of a single rural 
pupil in Pennsylvania: "She was positively stupid in her 

recitations and was 



WELFARE OF THE SCHOOLCHILD 

states where it is Promoted 

(?Qntroirm^<^ Jiuthority 




failing in her grade. 
Upon the report of 
the medical inspector 
of our school she was 
operated on in our 
local hospital, and 
notwithstanding her 
loss of time, she com- 
pleted with ease two 
years' work in less 
than one year's time ; 
proving that a bright 
mentality can be 
fogged by special 
conditions that can 
be remedied." 

The somewhat 
lengthy statements 
of prevailing condi- 
tions given above are intended to emphasize the reasonable- 
ness of requiring compulsory medical inspection in all 
schools, and to help the teacher see the urgency of the need. 
The appended chart of the Joint Committee gives some 
idea of the progress made in medical inspection under legal 
sanction or requirement. The shaded states have medical 
inspection under control of the boards of education or of 



Medical I bpection in Ciiyand Country Schools 

Colotado \ Ataint A^ew J/crk Wafi 

Medical Inspection in (?it^ Schools Only 

Arkansas ^f/rd/ana Tforrtana OAio 'Vhshinafan 

Ca/ffornia yauii/ana A^cw //irm^shire South Oirs/ino 'Hesi i^/rqin/t 
Ciiifrcficut TiasmJiusdti Abrfl, Datata Urmoni ' "^ 

ildministration of Medical Inspection in Cities 

•Percentoge of Cilies Report i n g 



74% 



By Board ef £du cation 



By^ocrdoffieatt/i 



Fig. 31 



HYGIENE AND RURAL COMMUNITY SANITATION 299 

the state boards of health. Nine states in all require 
medical inspection of rural schools, these being Colorado, 
Idaho, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, 
Rhode Island, Utah, and Virginia. Even in these states the 
inspection is not always what might be desired. The un- 
inspected black area in the chart is the richest agricultural 
section of our country — the only reason that can be 
offered here for neglecting this public duty is sheer heed- 
lessness. Assuredly, even in this area there is much local 
medical inspection, although the state-wide requirement is 
lacking. 

The Teacher's Responsibility for Health Standards of 
the School. — In the near future we will have medical inspec- 
tion and school nurses in most rural communities. Mean- 
while, the teachers will continue to be charged with the 
responsibility of looking after the children's health. They 
must be both health inspectors and teachers of health. 

The writer believes that every rural teacher should be 
required to take a brief course in children's diseases and how 
to detect them — at least enough to discover by their out- 
ward signs the common contagious diseases, and, acting 
upon this knowledge, place the patient under a physician's 
care. He should be able to detect the common remediable 
defects in pupils under his care, as, for example, enlarged 
tonsils, adenoids, and incorrect vision. He should, further- 
more, feel this responsibility keenly enough to risk con- 
siderable community upheaval, if necessary, to enforce 
remedial action. 

The New Method of Teaching Hygiene. — The old 
physiology in the schools has availed us little. To commit 
to memory a catalogue of bones and muscles is of little use 
in itself ; and to trace the devious processes of digestion is 
meaningless, unless connected somehow with the pupil's 



300 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

everyday life. Under the old plan the study was based on 
how we live ; under the new we teach how to live. The 
new problem of health teaching is well defined, as it has a 
definite purpose. As teachers, we must do what we can 
to keep the pupils in good health ; do what is possible to 
make their surroundings at school sanitary and to imbue 
them with a desire for sanitary living at home. These 
desiderata may conveniently be treated under the heads of 
personal hygiene, school sanitation, and home and com- 
munity sanitation. 

Personal Hygiene. — Some excellent books have already 
been written on this important theme. A mere mention 
of a few important phases of personal hygiene is all that is 
necessary here. The first essential is to start the pupil right 
by giving him a thorough medical examination, followed by 
medical reUef if necessary. The second essential is to keep 
the child in health by teaching him how to live. 

The Pennsylvania State Board of Health found 83,748 
cases of defective vision in the rural schools. Practically 
none of these children had ever had their eyes examined. 
They were found to be straining their vision in vain efforts 
to do their work. Many were declared by their teachers 
" backward " in study, as well they might be. For how can 
they be anything else when they find it impossible to read 
their books in comfort, and the blackboard figures swim be- 
fore their eyes ! Every teacher should procure a copy of 
Snellen's chart for testing vision and use it systematically 
in school. 

A much smaller number of children suffer from defects of 
hearing. The Pennsylvania inspection disclosed 15,600 
cases of this kind. It is surprising how often children at 
home and in school are accused of inattention and indiffer- 
ence, when in reality they are suffering from impaired hear- 



HYGIENE AND RURAL COMMUNITY SANITATION 301 

ing. Hearing tests are quite simple, and can be made by 
any teacher. The child should be stationed at one end of 
the classroom — this should be a distance of about thirty 
feet — and the teacher at the other. The latter should 
then make his tests by addressing the child in a low whisper, 
which will be understood if hearing is normal. Every case 
proved defective should be placed in care of a specialist 
without delay. 

Defective breathing is another common ailment. En- 
larged tonsils and adenoidal growths are the most common 
cause of mouth-breathing ; and, if neglected, will cause 
permanent facial disfigurement, in addition to being pro- 
lific breeding grounds for diphtheria, scarlet fever, the 
grippe, pneumonia, etc. The nose and throat must be kept 
in healthy condition, if for no other reason than as a safe- 
guard against the numerous diseases which get their first 
lodgment in these passages. Hygiene of the nose and throat 
should have an important place in all hygiene-teaching. 

By far the largest percentage of defects found by the 
Pennsylvania inspectors pertained to unclean and decayed 
teeth, and diseased gums ; 212,708 cases were in this classifi- 
cation. In the past, toothache and loss of teeth has been 
looked upon as necessary. The " milk teeth " must go 
sooner or later anyway, so why bother with them? This 
was common doctrine a few years ago, before dental science 
had come into its own. The new science teaches that not 
alone should the permanent teeth be cared for, but the baby 
teeth as well. Unclean and decaying teeth offer lodgment 
and breeding ground for all kinds of germs which at the 
proper time may cause infection and serious disease. Every 
teacher should emphasize the importance of clean and sound 
teeth, and urge parents to let their children's teeth be ex- 
amined regularly by a good dentist. 



302 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

School Sanitation. — It is bootless to talk and teach and 
live hygienically in insanitary schoolhouses. The premises 
must be in keeping with the teachings of the new gospel of 
right living. No poorly lighted, poorly ventilated, and 
otherwise ill-suited schoolhouse can inspire teacher or pupils 
to hygienic living. The essentials of a sanitary schoolhouse 
have been given in a former chapter and need not be re- 
peated here. Instead, are included the minimum sanitary 
requirements for rural schools formulated by the Joint 
Committee. These are also known as the " Ten Sanitary 
Commandments " for rural schools : 

1. Heating by at least a properly jacketed stove. (No unjacketed 
stove to be allowed.) Avoid over-heating. Temperature should never 
go above 68° F. There should be a thermometer in every schoolroom. 
Ventilation by open windows when weather permits and opening of win- 
dows at frequent intervals even in winter. 

2. Lighting from left side of room (or from left and rear) through 
window space at least one-fifth of floor space in area. 

3. Cleanliness of school as good as in the home of a careful house- 
keeper. 

4. Furniture sanitary in kind, and easily and frequently cleaned. 
Seats and desks adjustable and hygienic in type. 

5. Drinking water from a pure source provided by a sanitary drinking 
fountain. 

6. Facilities for washing hands, and individual towels. 

7. Toilets and privies sanitary in type and in care (with no cesspools 
unless water-tight) and no neglected privy boxes or vaults. 

8. Flies and mosquitoes excluded by thorough screening of school - 
house and toilets. 

9. Obscene and defacing marks absolutely absent from schoolhouse 
and privies. 

10. Playground of adequate size for every rural school. 

Home and Community Sanitation. — Under the new 
system will be taught hygienic living in schools which are 
themselves to be sanitary models. The ultimate effects of 



HYGIENE AND RURAL COMMUNITY SANITATION 303 

this kind of teaching on home and community Hfe can 
hardly be overestimated. Many farm homes are what they 
are to-day because the schools have failed to influence the 
people to better living. Under the new regime, the changes 
are bound to be many and fairly rapid. The causes of dis- 
ease and their means of transmission will become familiar 
to every householder. Then will be remedied the great 
sources of danger — insanitary water supply, lack of sewage 
disposal, foul privies, poor ventilation and foul air, in-_ 
sanitarysfood, exposure to weather and insanitary clothing, 
and all the"others. In sections of the country where the 
schools are supplied with pressure tank systems and the 
conveniences that come with flowing water, the farm homes 
are learning the value of indoor toilets, shower baths, 
kitchen sinks, and sanitary sewage disposal. The com- 
bined effort of the teaching and example of the model school 
will unquestionably, at no remote date, influence rural 
sanitation to such a degree that it shall no longer be said 
that country life is a menace to city health. 

Question Studies Suggested by the Text 

What can you say about the right of the child to clean parentage and 
sound body and mind? Can a well-poised teacher do much to promote 
sex hygiene, even though not teaching it as a class subject ? 

What role has ignorance played in the health of humanity ? Explain. 

Compare health conditions of country and town as we find them to- 
day. How do you explain prevailing conditions? 

What is the status of easily preventable diseases in rural communities ? 

Give a detailed statement of the comparative health defects of city 
and country children as disclosed in the Joint Committee's investigation. 

What do you think of the disclosures from the Pennsylvania medical 
inspection? How would your school and your state probably rank? 

Have you medical inspection in your community? If not, what are 
you, as teacher, doing for medical inspection ? 

Do you believe in compulsory medical inspection? Why? 



304 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

How do you teach the subject of hygiene? How far does the teaching 
apply to community health and happiness ? 

Special Studies 

Make a special study of "The Health of the School Child/' Bureau 
of Education Bulletin, 191 5, No. 4. 

Report to the class on ''Minimum Health Requirements for Rural 
Schools," issued by The Joint Committee on Health Problems. 

Summarize one of the following works : 

Health Work in Schools, by Hoag and Terman ; or Medical Inspection^ 
by Gulick and Ayers. 



CHAPTER VI 
The Rural School and Community Recreation 

Dearth of Rural Recreation in the United States. — 

One of the human elements badly needed by rural folk is 
a more satisfactory recreational life. Farm people do not 
take enough time for play and rest from labor. What 
is more, so much of the recreation that is common to rural 
life is unwholesome, and is, to a greater degree than the 
average man imagines, given to bad practices and immoral 
suggestion. It is well to recall, too, that our twentieth 
century agricultural life is more completely dominated by 
labor than it used to be before the old-time rural craftsmen 
were drawn away by the industrial and commercial life of 
the city. In earlier times all were not farmers who lived 
in the open country. Many wheelrights, cabinetmakers, 
cobblers, weavers, and others of varied occupation dwelt 
there, giving the country a variety of life, as was reflected 
in a variety of recreative life. That was the day of the 
barn-raising, the quilting, the husking, the applebee, the 
singing school, and the folk dance. Now that farm life 
has become systematized and reduced to soil-tilling ex- 
clusively, it is given over to too much of labor and drudgery, 
with too little time to live, to associate with one's fellows, to 
enjoy life for its own sake. The hours of labor are both too 
many and too long. In altogether too many sections it 
means labor from starlight to starlight. 

A Fundamental Law of Labor and Recreation. — At this 
point it is necessary to call attention to a law of labor and 
X 305 



306 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

recreation which must always be reckoned with, whether 
one Hves in country or town. It can be stated briefly in 
these words : Systematic labor must always react in or- 
ganized recreation. That is to say, whenever the human 
being is tied down to hours of self -repression, his body craves 
a certain amount of relaxation to be sought in play or amuse- 
ment of some sort. If this is wisely provided, all will go 
well ; if ignored as unnecessary and wasteful, the person 
affected will be sure to seek relief or an outlet for his pent-up 
desires in questionable ways and places. Acting upon this 
principle, factory owners and other great corporations em- 
ploying many laborers are beginning to furnish their em- 
ployees attractive recreation, such as individual gardens, 
playgrounds equipped for baseball, volley ball and croquet, 
swimming pools, reading rooms, and social chat rooms. 

Unfortunate Results from Lack of Organized Recreation. 
— Rural people have had very little organized recreation 
to affect their natural cravings. This has resulted badly 
for rural life, both in undermining its stability and in its 
everyday morality. 

Great numbers of young men and women of the con- 
vivial type and strongly developed social instincts have 
abandoned the country for the towns and cities in search 
of just these things. Let us remember, it is just as much a 
desire for spiritual things as for material things that at- 
tracts the youth to city glamour. How often could not 
the condition that the poet here besings have been avoided 
had we only recognized the fundamental craving of the 
youthful soul for recreation : 

The old farm home is Mother's yet and mine, 

And filled it is with plenty and to spare, 
But we are lonely here in life's decline, 

Though fortune smiles around us everywhere ; 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY RECREATION 307 

We look across the gold 

Of the harvests, as of old — 
The corn, the fragrant clover, and the hay ; 

But most we turn our gaze, 

As with eyes of other days, 
To the orchard where the children used to play. 

The country towns and villages have responded to the 
demand for recreation that the country has not known how 
to furnish, and are now olTering all comers a cheap, artificial 
amusement life, sometimes immoral and vicious. It in- 
cludes saloons, poolhalls, cheap theaters, and sentimental 
moving-picture shows, and other attractions of similar nature. 

Finally, because the livelong day is spent in work, from 
Monday morn till Saturday eve, ^- often in hard nerve- 
racking work at that, — an outlet for the pent-up recreative 
energy is sought on Sunday. Whether we like it or not, 
Sunday in the country has become a holiday more than a 
holy day. Some careful rural-life surveys show that, aside 
from the many really innocent pastimes summed up in 
neighborly calls and community gatherings on Sunday, 
this day is quite generally given over to baseball, horse 
racing, and, in places, to dancing and carousals reflecting 
small credit on an otherwise wholesome country life. 

The Real Significance of Play Life. — Our play life is 
just beginning to be understood. In the first place it 
protects the person from the enslavement of labor. It 
keeps his individuality strong and vigorous. It keeps his 
physical self in health and safe from too much or too con- 
tinuous work. It is indeed true that " all work and no 
play makes Jack a dull boy." Human beings simply 
cannot get along without play. Most animals play, and 
play instinctively. The human being craves play under 
the same law. Sometimes children play because they have 



3o8 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

more stored-up vitality than they have use for. At all 
times play is a sort of preparation for the activities to be 
entered upon later in life. We are here speaking of children 
at play only. In a way the kitten's ball is the old cat's 
mouse ; the girl's doll and the boy's soldier are just as 
suggestive. From this may be seen that to interfere with 
play life is to check some law of natural development. 
This applies to country and town alike. But entirely 
aside from its amusement and recreational phases play 
fosters the social instincts which are at this time necessary 
to bind the over-individualistic rural people by closer ties, 
so that they may become willing to cooperate for a fuller 
and more complete rural life. 

How the New Recreational Life Is To Be Realized. — In 
this as in other great rural life tasks the home, church, and 
school and their natural allies must cooperate. The school 
can be expected to take the initiative ; although, if it should 
fail to take advantage of its opportunity, the church, county 
Young Men's Christian Association, or other allied organiza- 
tions may take its place, as has been done in many com- 
munities to the shame of the school. 

The school must assist the home to regain its central 
place in recreational life. The fireside must reestablish 
itself with some of the significance and attractiveness it 
had in the days of our grandfathers and grandmothers. A 
new kind of story-telling for the children and even, during 
the long winter time, the staging of simple rustic plays at 
home will attain these ends for it. 

The new community church has begun to see great possi- 
bilities in rural recreation. By offering the young people 
wholesome substitutes for the old decadent social existence, 
the church of the open country is getting a new lease on 
life. A considerable number of social service churches with 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY RECREATION 309 

permanent pastors, living in the midst of their people, can 
be found working in harmonious cooperation with the 
teachers in socializing rural communities. 

Besides parents, teachers, and preachers, many other 
agents share in the work. The organized country Y. M. C. A. 
is doing remarkable things for rural recreation in some sec- 
tions. The Grange, which is par excellence the social in- 
stitution of the rural folk, has accomplished untold good for 
recreational reorganization. Even the unattached farmers' 
clubs, whether of an economic or other nature, can be made 
to help. 

The Teacher's Great Opportunity. — The supervised 
play life of the community takes form at the school. Here 
is the teacher's first opportunity. He takes the children 
from all kinds of living conditions. By using his knowledge 
of play supervision he directs their physical energies in cor- 
rect channels, to make of the children strong, sound beings of 
highest physical and mental health ; not to mention the joy 
and satisfaction he gives them through the games well played. 

The teacher's opportunity by no means ends with chil- 
dren in school. He is the leader of the whole country- 
side. The youth beyond ordinary school age need the 
teacher's assistance almost as much as do the children in 
school. They have little or no guidance in their search after 
recreation. It is true that teachers are not legally bound to 
take upon themselves these added tasks. But the wise 
teacher will nevertheless accept this opportunity to draw 
the whole community closer to the school. It is possible 
to go a step farther and include even the adult membership 
in the new activities. 

In some well-organized communities, teachers and 
thoughtful parents have, for example, cooperated in pro- 
viding the young men and women with Saturday-after- 



3IO THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

noon holidays, which are spent in wholesome sports in the 
country instead of, as formerly, in flocking to the trad- 
ing centers. Baseball is popular in these organizations. 
" Nines " from the whole countryside are organized into 
a league of teams. The teachers act as managers and um- 
pires. Vulgarity is prohibited. Sportsmanship is inculcated 
in the players and audience. The new play life has already 
done something to inspire a new respect for the Sabbath day. 
Some of the baseball playing in rural back lots is already 
disappearing and the teacher leads his players to the Sunday 
School instead, where he — their umpire and manager — 
is head of the Bible class ! 

The adults of the community get their full share of the 
new recreation. Teachers have begun to organize Friday 
evening farmers' clubs to take the place of the old-time 
literary societies. The programs abound in music by the 
choral society or quartet, trained, or at least inspired, by 
the teacher. An occasional victrola or graphophone is 
furnished to cultivate a taste for good music. Simple 
dramatics, based on farm life, hold an important place in 
the program. Most of all is the new tendency shown in 
the kind of questions discussed at the meetings. Where 
our fathers debated in all seriousness that " the pen is 
mightier than the sword," that " fire is more destructive 
than water," the sons are beginning to discuss that ''it is 
more important for the farmer's wife to have the latest in 
household conveniences than it is for her husband to have 
the latest in reapers and riding plows," or that " sanitary 
appliances in the farm home mean more to rural life than 
good roads." 

The parent- teacher association also can be made a source 
of genuine recreation to the fathers and mothers. Then 
there is the school-home harvest festival which ought to be 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY RECREATION 311 

held in the autumn at every school. This should be made 
the great occasion at which to emphasize the school and 
home projects and boys' and girls' industrial clubs. The 
products from the children's gardens and other projects 
should be assembled at the school and scored by competent 
judges. The occasion ought to be made a gala day for the 
whole community. There should be a dinner for all, inter- 
spersed with music, song, speeches, and declamations by 
young and old. 

The Amenia Annual Field-day. — Rural play festivals 
are beginning to make their appearance in enterprising 
communities. The first of these were organized by the 
instructors and students in a few normal schools and by 
county secretaries of the International Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association. Probably the New Paltz Normal School, 
New York, should have credit for being first in the field. 
Young Men's Christian Association county secretaries are 
now doing this kind of uplift work in at least ninety counties 
in many different states. In some places the people of entire 
counties have become imbued with the new play-spirit and 
hold annual county-wide play festivals. A notable ex- 
ample is Amenia in Dutchess County, New York. This 
enterprise is generally spoken of as '' the Amenia Experiment 
in Cooperative Recreation," because the little town of 
Amenia inaugurated the idea. 

For six years Amenia and Dutchess Counties have pro- 
moted their great country play festival with wonderful 
success, much of it being due to the able leadership of the 
village teachers. The new " show " takes the place of the 
old " country fair " infested as it usually is with fakers, 
gamblers, and questionable characters of all kinds. 

Physical Education in the Schools. — So far, we have 
dealt with play and recreation in the larger community sense. 



312 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

We now come to the more particular problem of physical 
education in the schools. This phase of education manifests 
itself through the agencies of manual training, gymnastics, 
athletics, and play. 

Manual training, as we have learned, can be made an 
important factor in the intellectual, moral, and physical 
education of rural children. It teaches coordination of 
head, heart, and hand ; it fosters mental, moral, and physi- 
cal habits of accuracy ; it makes for dexterity and removal 
of awkwardness. For these reasons manual training is 
counted an important agency of physical education. 

Place of Gymnastics in Rural Schools. — Gymnastics 
is a man-made system of physical exercise. It lacks much 
of the spontaneity of play, requiring a certain measure of 
mental strain and will assertion. Because of this, gym- 
nastics are not engaged in with the natural abandon which 
marks games and sports ; but it is superior to these in 
physical development, since every part of the body may 
receive attention. 

Rural children are inclined to be awkward and ungainly, 
sometimes unshapely, bespeaking strength without the 
requisites of harmony and beauty. The shuffling foot- 
steps, the ungainly bearing, so common in rural school 
children is proof of disproportionate physical development. 

A moderate amount of gymnastics in the schools would 
be an excellent thing, particularly in the larger consolidated 
schools which can provide gymnasium space and necessary 
apparatus. The smaller rural schools will probably get 
along well enough without formal gymnastics by depending 
on supervised play. 

Athletics and Non-competitive Standard Tests. — In 
most small rural schools there is no interest whatever in 
athletics. The boys are few in number, and vary in age 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY RECREATION 313 

and ability so much that there is Httle incentive to friendly 
competition. If a boy proves his superiority in a particular 
event, the other boys will no longer compete with him. A 
satisfactory way to infuse real life into rural school athletics 
is to adopt one of the following plans : (i) organize the 
local school on the basis of non-competitive standard tests ; 
or (2) organize a county- wide school association for athletics. 

In the small school it is futile to emphasize individual 
competition. If the school is not a member of a larger 
athletic association, it ought to adopt a plan of non-com- 
petitive athletics, using for this purpose the standard tests 
of the Public School Athletic League of New York,^ or 
other similar organizations. The fine thing about the 
standard tests is that they encourage all the children to 
strive towards a reasonable standard of attainment, in 
place of keeping before them continually the thought of 
besting the other fellows. The New York standards re- 
quire " that the boy under thirteen shall be able to run 
the sixty-yard dash in eight and three-fifths seconds; jump 
five feet nine inches standing ; and chin the bar four times." ^ 

The equipment for the non-competitive tests is simple. 
There should be a straightaway race course of one hun- 
dred yards. Longer races ought to be discouraged. A 
stop watch is an essential part of the equipment. There 
should also be a jumping pit, horizontal bars, and standards 
for the high jump. These may usually be procured through 
the pupils' own ingenuity. 

County- wide Athletic Associations. — Meanwhile, a new 
plan of organization has made its appearance, which promises 
new life to rural school athletics. It is the county- wide 

1 Send for Athletic Badge Test for Boys, and Athletic Badge Test for Girls, 
Playground and Recreation Association of America, i Madison Avenue, New 
York. Each 5 cents. ^ See Curtis, Education Through Play, p. 194. 



314 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

athletic association, promoted largely by the County Work 
Department, International Committee of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. As an organization it has already 
enlisted all the boys of entire counties " in helpful and pleas- 
urable sports, which are more than pastime or amusement." 

Dr. John Brown, Jr., of the County Work Department, 
has published an excellent little brochure ^ on this subject, 
worthy of a place on every teacher's book shelf. The pub- 
lication can be used as a guide in promoting the county 
organization, which, to use Doctor Brown's own words, 
" would have for its object the development of play and 
athletics in the schools, and include the organizing and super- 
vision of the athletic test together with all forms of group 
games and team games for both boys and girls of all ages." 

The plan would include every school in the county (or 
other division) and offers every boy an opportunity to 
participate, provided he can qualify on these points : He 
must be sixty pounds in weight or over ; he must be phys- 
ically fit ; he must maintain a satisfactory standing in 
scholarship. The boys are further classified by weight 
into five classes, there being definite athletic events for 
each weight class. 

Teachers can get the details of how to organize and 
conduct such an association by addressing the County Work 
Department as indicated above. 

Organized Play and Moral Health. — Of the four agencies 
in physical education, organized play is the most valuable 
to the school. Play should be planned and supervised by 
the teacher just as any other school work. The teacher 
needs the air and exercise just as much as the children do. 
For this reason he should spend considerable time on the 

^ John Brown, Jr., M.D., Outdoor Athletic Tests for Boys. (Specially designed 
for rural schools), Association Press, 124 East 28th St., New York. 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY RECREATION 315 

playground mingling with the children. It is preposterous 
to suppose, as some do, that the teacher cannot take an 
intimate part in the children's play life without lowering 
himself in their estimation, in accordance with the old 
saying '' that familiarity breeds contempt." The teacher's 
dignified bearing and ever-helpful suggestion and assistance 
is exactly what is needed to make the playground a good 
place to be. 

One of the most difficult problems in school management 
is encountered in our efforts to prevent the perversion of 
natural instincts through immoral suggestion. Teachers 
who watch closely the physical condition of their pupils 
are apt to cope with the difficulties. Nothing is so effective 
in keeping mind and body pure as interesting games and 
plenty of wholesome exercise. The degree of the teacher's 
success will be determined by his ability to keep the pupils 
out of mischief while engaging all in wholesome exercise, in 
his vigilance and ability to detect every symptom of child 
depravity, and in his uncompromising severity in dealing 
with every case infringing upon the laws of morality.^ 

School Grounds and Play Equipment. — The half-acre 
lots which comprise the grounds of most one-room schools 
are inadequate for community play and recreation, not to 
mention their use for garden and agricultural experiments. 
Two acres ought to be the minimum size grounds of the 
small school ; though even these would be too small for 
such a game as baseball. In areas smaller than three acres, 
it is advisable to limit the games to indoor baseball, volley 
ball, basket ball, etc., which require comparatively small 
space. But we must not forget that the grounds of the 
modern school are planned as rallying centers for the whole 
community. They must, accordingly, be large enough to 

^ See The American Rural School, p. 301. 



3i6 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

accommodate all the children and their parents when they 
meet for the school rallies. 

Every well-planned community school — whether of one 
or more teachers — should aim to approximate the grounds 
of the ideal school which are shown on page 1 64. The grounds 
of ten acres are divided into nine distinct areas. Three of 
these are devoted to games and sports. The largest, lying 
at the center of the grounds, is the community rallying- 
ground. It is seated with '' bleachers " and makes pro- 
vision for baseball and football, and is large enough for the 
community field-day, for stock shows, harvest home festivals, 
and other important community gatherings. The two play- 
areas flanking the schoolhouse are equipped with simple 
play apparatus, as swings, teeters, slide, sandbox, and the 
like. There are also courts for basket ball, volley ball, and 
tennis. The whole is planned for use seven days in the 
week, under the eye of the teacher who lives on the 
premises. 

Minimum Playground Equipment. — Very little money 
is required to equip a small school ground with play appara- 
tus ; intelligence and energy, rather, are demanded. The 
teacher, older pupils, and interested patrons can supply the 
labor. The materials required are few and need not be 
expensive. Some of them may even be donated to the 
community enterprise. 

The Youth's Companion has recently carried on a cam- 
paign to provide suitable playground apparatus for rural 
communities ; to which end it has conducted rural recrea- 
tion demonstrations, in cooperation with the Department 
of Recreation of the Russell Sage Foundation, and the 
Normal Schools at Keene, New Hampshire, and New Paltz, 
New York. The demonstrations have convinced the ex- 
perts in charge that every playground ought to be equipped 



THE RURAL SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY RECREATION 317 



with this simple apparatus : sandbox, swing, horizontal 
bar, teeter, and giant stride.^ 

That it is unnecessary to expend any large amount of 
money on the equipment is shown in the following compara- 
tive expense accounts of the equipment at Ardonia, New 
York, and Keene, New Hampshire, both of which were 
planned as a part of the demonstration, but each entirely 
independent of the other : 

Keene 

. . $1.17 
$ -57 
.04 

.56 
.00 





Ardonia 


Horizontal Bar 




$2.15 


Bar ... $ 


.65 




Bolts . . 


** 




Uprights . ] 


[.00 




Labor . . 


•50 




Teeter . . . 




2.37 


Plank . . ] 


[.17 




Supports . 


.20 




Pipe and Cap 


•25 




2 Bolts 


•05 




Bowpin 


** 




Boring Holes 


.20 




Labor . . 


.50 




Giant Stride 




1.73 


Pole . . 


** 




Wheel . . 


** 




Rope . . 1 


•23 




Wire . . 


.00 




Labor . . 


.50 




Sand Pile . . 


. 


** 


2 Boards 






Joist 






Nails 






Cement . . . 


. 


1.29 


Totals 




$7-54 


** Donated. 







2.14 



1.50 
.29 

.25 
.04 
.06 

.00 
.00 

.50 

•50 

1.77 

.20 
.00 



2.97 



1. 12 



$7.40 



^ " Neighborhood Play, a Manual of Rural Recreation. 
Boston. Free. 



The Youth's Companion, 



3i8 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Question Studies from the Text 

Do you agree with the author that much of our rural recreation is un- 
wholesome ? Explain. 

Show what happened to the social life of the household economy farmer 
when the transition period began. Describe this social life. 

State the fundamental law of labor and recreation. 

What unfortunate results have come to rural communities because 
they have had no organized recreation? 

State just how the new recreation is to be realized. Can it be accom- 
plished without cooperation of the chief rural life agencies ? 

Just what role should the teacher fill in community play-life ? Give 
your own experience with rural play activities. 

Tell the story of some successful play-festival, either from experience 
or from reading. Could a field-day of the Amenia type be held in your 
community ? 

Which of the four agencies of physical education do you consider of 
most importance to the rural community ? Why ? 

Explain, fully, what is meant by non-competitive standard tests. 
What is the most valuable feature of the plan? 

Do you think a county-wide athletic organization would be feasible 
in your community? Explain. Should the teachers invariably be at 
the head of these organizations? What about the county and other 
local superintendents. Or the Y. M. C. A. county secretaries? 

State clearly the relation of supervised play to children's moral health. 

Draw a plan of your ideal community playground. 

Special Studies 

Make a study of the "Educative Value of Play" in Jo^mson's Education 
by Plays and Games. 

Report to the class on the" socializing influences of play and recreation " 
as found in Scudder's Recreation for Rural Communities. 

Make a full report to the class of Brown's Outdoor Athletic Test for Boys. 

Study a copy of "Neighborhood Play" {The Youth's Companion, 
Boston). What do you think of the plan? 

Procure a copy of the simple little rural play "Back to the Farm," 
published by the University of Minnesota, or the play "A Vision of 
Homeland," published by the Kirksville (Mo.) State Normal School. 
Why not stage the play for your community ? 



CHAPTER VII 

Daily Program and Model Curriculum for the One- 
Teacher School 

Difficulties Caused by the Crowded Daily Program. — 

This concluding chapter is intended especially for the young 
teacher who is striving to make the most of the small school 
with its numerous subjects and classes. It is very well to 
write about the evolution of effective one-teacher schools 
rooted to the soil, etc., but this requires time, hard work, 
and long experience. Meanwhile, it is not out of place to 
offer a few constructive suggestions to beginning teachers 
on how to organize their daily programs, and to present for 
their consideration in detail a well-tried curriculum for one- 
teacher schools. 

The strength or weakness of the teacher is usually mani- 
fested in the organization of his daily program and in the 
degree of ability he displays in using it as a flexible or rigid 
instrument of daily work. Too many classes is an evidence 
of poor organization. There was a time when rural teachers 
were obliged to have almost as many classes as the com- 
munity had kinds and varieties of textbooks. This is no 
longer necessary. A reasonable equipment in books and 
other materials is provided in any average school. It is 
for the teacher to organize his school to such advantage 
that (i) the children's time shall be economized as much 
as possible and (2) the best educational returns be made 
on the hours spent in school. 

319 



320 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

In the first place, it is important to remember that a 
one- teacher school is an elementary school. Eight years 
of work is the maximum to be considered. Ambitious young 
teachers — themselves fresh from the classroom in secondary 
school or college — are often eager to instruct the older 
pupils in a few high school subjects. This is generally 
ruinous to the rest of the school. No school which has 
representatives in all or most of the eight years can tolerate 
such a practice. To build heavily at the top is to weaken 
the school at its foundation. If occasional school boards 
insist on their teachers giving advanced work, these 
gentlemen should be set right by having it pointed out 
to them that a one-teacher rural school is neither a second- 
ary school nor a college, and can never become such an 
institution. 

Content of an Average Course of Study. — It is next 
necessary to consider the subjects that must be included 
in the daily study course. This should be done as nearly 
as possible in accordance with the suggestions for course 
content laid down in former chapters. There are the formal 
subjects to be considered, with their new rural emphasis ; 
the great industrial trio — agriculture, household economics, 
and manual arts — which must be featured ; and music and 
art, and physical education. All these must have place in 
the daily program, or the school cannot rank as a modern 
one- teacher school. How to plan the program and find 
time and room for all these subjects is the most difficult 
problem confronting the inexperienced teacher — or old 
and experienced teacher, for that matter. In some states 
the teachers are expected largely to follow programs pre- 
pared for them by local or state authority. Even here no 
one can object if the teachers improve on what the state's 
educational authorities have to offer. 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 321 



Grade Grouping or Alternation by Years. — To attain 
the best results in organizing the daily program, the teacher 
should apply the well-known scheme of grouping the eight 
school years into three or four groups or sections, and at the 
same time combine, alternate, and correlate class-subjects 
liberally. 

The principle of class-grouping or alternation by years 
has long been practiced, although many teachers seem 
unable to utilize it to good advantage. The plan is simply 
to group the years or grades as in the following form : 



Recitation 




D Group 


C Group 


B Group 


A Group 


Period 


ist Yr. 


2d Yr. 


3dYr. 


4th Yr. 


5th Yr. 


6th Yr. 


7th Yr. 


8th Yr. 


8.50-9.00 








Opening Exercises — Song, current topics of rural interest, etc. 


9.00-9.10 








Reading 
















9.10-9.20 










Reading 














9.20-9.40 




















Arithmetic 


9.40-10.05 
















Arithmetic 






10.05-10.20 












Reading 










10.20-10.30 








Story hour 


1 










10.30-10.45 








Recess — Supervised play 



Years i and 2 form group D, years 3 and 4, group C, etc. 
In a few classes it is clearly necessary to have the years 
within the group recite separately, as for example the be- 
ginners' class in reading while mastering the first principles. 
Later in the morning, it is seen, this year is merged with 
the second year in the '' story hour." The third and fourth 
years may form one reading class, but are prohahly separate 
as arithmetic classes. The two years of group B usually 
form one class in all their subjects, and may form one group 
with years seven and eight in industrial work. The exact 
classification within the several groups must depend largely 
upon the number of pupils in each year, their capacity for 
work, etc. The whole should be made very flexible and 



322 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



pupils should be promoted from the lower to the higher 
year in the group within the school term if they give evi- 
dence of ability and subject mastery. 

Alternation of Classes. — Beginners' classes should have 
opportunity for frequent recitation, even though the time 
allowed for each class be short. With more advanced groups 
conditions are quite different. It is not necessary, for 
example, to have daily classes in history and civics, or hy- 
giene and geography, in the two upper groups. Fewer 
recitations in a subject per week and longer recitation 
periods have proved generally economical, as not alone is 
the time required for class change saved, but the direct 
teaching- results from the longer period, which allows the 
teacher to develop the lesson properly, are so far superior 
as to leave no room for doubt. 

The classes to be alternated should preferably be closely 
related, as history and civics, agriculture and geography, 
hygiene and geography, and the like. The following form 
illustrates the arrangement in the daily program : 



Recitation 


D Group 


C Group 


B Group 


A Grou^ 


Period 


ist Yr. 2d Yr. 


3dYr. 


4th Yr. 


5 th Yr. 


6th Yr. 


7th Yr. 


8th Yr. 


1.00-1.15 


Numbers 














II5-I-30 






Arithmetic 










1.30-1.50 










Geography 

MONDAY 

WEDNESDAY 

FRIDAY 

Sanitation 

TUESDAY 
THURSDAY 






1.50-2.15 














History 

MONDAY 

W'EDNESDAY 

FRIDAY 

Community 
Civics 

TUESDAY 
THURSDAY 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 323 

B group here recites geography on Mondays, Wednesdays, 
and Fridays, and sanitation on the remaining two days. 
Similarly A group divides its time between history and 
community civics. Such an arrangement needs no further 
comment. Geography and sanitation, history and civics, it 
will be understood, can be taught in such intimate relation 
that an alternation like this amounts to correlation, nearly. 

The plan of alternation by years requires, with a few 
exceptions, that the two years in a given group do the work 
of one of the two years in a single class, while the other year 
is omitted. The next year the work that was omitted is 
taken up and the past year's work dropped. The pupils 
will thus get all the subject matter of the study-course, 
although not all in the same order. 

The Missouri Plan of Alternation Illustrated. — The 
Missouri State Department of Education utilizes a very 
satisfactory plan of alternation in its rural and other ele- 
mentary schools. The following three pages illustrate the 
organization and group alternation of this scheme in detail. 
Page 324 gives the suggested daily program. This is di- 
vided, as the teacher will observe, into " recitation pro- 
gram " and " study program." The recitation program dis- 
closes that the pupils in class D and class C recite by separate 
grades in most of their subjects, which is quite natural in 
beginning pupils. Thereafter the two years of each group 
recite as a single class throughout. The Missouri plan is re- 
produced to illustrate the scheme used in grouping and in 
alternating the subject matter by years, as shown on pages 
325 and 326, rather than for its content. The latter when 
compared with the Kirksville curriculum, which is given 
later in this chapter, will seem quite meager and formal, al- 
though it offers more industrial work than do most of the 
state courses now generally in use. It is perhaps safe to say 



324 



THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 



































. 






a. Reading. (Basal and 

Supplementary) 

b. Language and Spell- 

ing 

c. Arithmetic. (Fac- 

toring denominate 
numbers and frac- 
tions) 

d. Geography and His- 

tory. (N. and S. 
America and U. S.) 

e. Nature Study 

(Plants, animals, 
and soils) 


a. Reading 

b. Phonics and Spelling 

c. Language and Story 

Hour 

d. Reading, Numbers, 

and Nature Study 


a. Reading 

b. Phonics and Spelling 

c. Language and Story 

Hour 

d. Reading, Numbers, 

and Nature Study 


a. ** Reading 

b. * Language and Spell- 

ing 

c. Arithmetic 

d. * Geography and Na- 

ture Study. (Prim- 
itive Life) 


a. ** Reading 

b. * Language and Spell- 

ing 

c. Arithmetic 

d. * Geography and Na- 

ture Study. (Home 
Geography) 















DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 325 






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DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 327 

that it contains as much of agriculture and manual work as 
the average teacher now in the service can handle. 

The Principle of Correlation Applied to the Program. — 
To be able to correlate the subject matter effectively is 
evidence of marked teaching ability. Our limitations as 
teachers alone make it necessary to divide the curriculum 
into vertical sections under such titles as geography, civics, 
and agriculture. Some day, perhaps, the great teacher will 
appear who shall be able to instruct the children in school 
by unfolding the educational process as a great connected 
panorama instead of in the poorly connected, vertical sub- 
ject sections now utilized. Meanwhile, every teacher can 
improve his teaching ability vastly by applying the prin- 
ciple of correlation to all the school subjects. Through 
this means it is feasible to obliterate largely the line of de- 
marcation between subjects and to teach them as we live 
them. The teacher who is a master of geography finds in 
his subject facts of biology, agriculture, physics, and chemis- 
try, and utilizes them to good advantage ; in his geography 
he sees the roots of history and civics, and so on with 
other subjects. In the curriculum given below of the Kirks- 
ville Model School, the principle of correlation plays a great 
role. By teaching lessons of good citizenship through 
geography, and language through agriculture, etc., the or- 
ganizers of this course of study have successfully compressed 
all the subject matter of the up-to-date one- teacher school 
into a score of classes daily. 

Curriculum of the Kirksville, Missouri, Model Rural 
School. — This well-known model rural school is main- 
tained in connection with the rural-teacher training depart- 
ment of the Missouri First District State Normal School at 
Kirksville. It is an experiment station " where," to quote 
the school's director, " adjustments are being worked out. 



328 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

and newer educational ideals adapted to the needs of country 
boys and girls." The course of study as offered in the school 
is intended for well-organized one-teacher schools in charge 
of first-class teachers ; but the course is just as well adapted 
to two- or three-room schools of the consolidated type. 

General Plan of Organization. ^ — The Model Rural 
School follows a course in which the subjects are grouped 
around two related centers, or, perhaps better, two con- 
centric circles, of interest. The first is the consideration of 
the ideal rural life ; the farm home, its sanitation, beauty, 
and comfort ; the feeding and clothing of the family ; the 
farm itself, its products, and all of the business concerned 
therewith. Conditions of the children's own surroundings 
form the starting point for these studies. The outer circle 
of subjects broadens the children's horizons by dealing with 
the life of other peoples in our own and foreign countries 
and those of former times, considered in their relations to 
our life and mode of living. 

In connection with the first group of interests such sub- 
jects as agriculture, nature study, hygiene and sanitation, 
cooking, sewing, manual arts and fine arts, home geography, 
reading, and mathematics make contributions. Literature, 
history, government, and geography contribute more largely 
to the second circle of interests. 

Throughout the children learn to see the relation of all 
life, past and present, distant and near. Not only are their 
minds active with these lessons, but their inventive and 
constructive genius is constantly called into play as they 
live vicariously the lives of other people or continue im- 
provements in their own surroundings. Initiative and 
leadership are encouraged by these enterprises. 

' This statement has been prepared by !Mrs. Florence Lane Gerow, Director 
of the Model School at the time the author had charge of the rural-teacher train- 
ing department in the normal school. 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 329 

Though we are obliged to separate the school subjects 
for convenience in these paragraphs, a day in the school- 
room is so much more nearly living than a series of recita- 
tions, that the whole place throbs with vitality and the 
children have an at-home feeling, helping one another and 
moving about the building and grounds more or less freely 
to pursue their activities. 

The Subjects : Reading. — This subject is important as 
a means by which many lines of information may be ac- 
quired and is given a generous place in the course, fre- 
quently, however, in connection with history, nature study, 
or other subjects, and is never considered an end in itself. 
The aim is to get the younger children to the point of inde- 
pendence as rapidly as possible by means of phonics and 
word recognition drills. The beginners read along until 
they have gained this ability to discover new words. The 
other children are divided into three groups for reading. 
Phonics is continued up to the place where word analysis 
is taken up, developing power to recognize, pronounce, and 
use words intelligently. In oral reading the pupils who 
take part feel that they are contributing to the enjoyment 
of the class. Literary appreciation is given more emphasis 
as the children advance toward the upper grades. 

English Language. — The subject is taught in a practical 
way. Much of the work is given in connection with ac- 
counts of experiments which the children are trying, and 
with their work in history or geography. They help one 
another to use better English upon the playground as well 
as in the recitation period. Through discussing the reasons 
for changes in their manner of saying things, they get a 
foundation for the more formal grammar, which is not 
studied technically before the eighth year. 

Spelling. — Written spelling is emphasized, although 



330 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

used almost wholly in connection with other subjects. It 
is made simple because of the background of phonics and 
word analysis, early acquired by all the pupils. 

Writing. — This art is practiced by the younger children 
upon the board, later upon wide-ruled paper, narrower- 
ruled paper, and finally in connection with writing notes 
and invitations to invite parents and friends to school pro- 
grams and parties. These invitations are written upon 
unruled note paper. Form of letters is emphasized first. 
Next comes muscular movements for speed, and bodily 
position which is much facilitated by the adjustable seats 
and desks used in the school. 

History and Geography. — These subjects play a large 
part throughout the entire course. They are closely inter- 
related. The pupils of the school recite in three groups. 
The first history-geography cycle covers four terms, or a 
year and a third. The more mature children in the first 
three grades then pass on to take work in the middle group. 
The slower and less mature children repeat the work, which 
is varied to give the same main points with different illus- 
trative material. Those who were weak in the old group 
now become leaders of the younger children, because they 
have had the work before. As soon as their power to under- 
stand and think has developed, they can go on into the 
second group, and continue there until they have mastered 
that material and gained power for the last group, where 
the work taxes their ability to a greater degree. 

Well-developed children who think clearly can progress 
through the school rapidly while slower minds can continue 
with the work without feeling that they are kept back in 
all of their studies. The three groups include roughly the 
first three grades, grades four to six inclusive, and grades 
seven and eight, respectively, though some children in their 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 331 

fifth year in school are able to take work with the upper 
group. 

This system is similar to plans utilized in our more pro- 
gressive cities where there are two rates at which children 
can be promoted and a possibility of changing children from 
the express train rate to that of the ordinary passenger 
train and vice versa. 

The history cycle in the upper group is five quarters long, 
as there the geography, history, and government of our own 
and adjacent countries are studied. 

Grades i to 3 
first term. 

The child's home. 

Work on the farm. 

Farm animals. 

Home geography. 

Homes of other children (showing variation of modes of living due to 

climatic control). 

SECOND TERM. 

The people who used to live here (Indians) . (Sand table, paper cut- 
ting, and dramatics make this life real.) 

Their homes. Construction by clay work, basketry, paper construc- 
tion, weaving, Indian dolls made and dressed, headdresses made and 
worn by children. 

Utensils. Reading done by children. 

Life. Hiawatha Primer, 

Starr's American Indians. 

Handicraft. 

THIRD TERM. 

How the white man first came to this country. 
Stories of Columbus and early explorers of our vicinity. 
Stories of pioneer life. 

Log house and its furniture. Ways of procuring and cooking food. 

Lighting (candles). 
Occupations of people — spinning, weaving, soap-making. 
Children play at living in those days and make as many of the things 
which the pioneer used as possible. 



332 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

FOURTH TERM. 

Stories of Industries. Beginning with those in our neighborhood. 

Stories concerning the sources of our food, clothing, and shelter, studied 
through reading matter, pictures, samples, experiments, and narration 
by teacher and older children in the group. Such stories as : Where 
our bread comes from. How I got my cotton dress. What had to 
be done before I could have a house to live in. 



Middle Group, Grades 4 to 6 

FIRST term. 

How the people lived before they had the tools and conveniences which 

we possess. 
Great contributions made by early peoples to our comfort and well- 
being. 

Tree men — discovered use of fire. 
Cave men — invented early weapons. 

Egyptians — associated with primitive agriculture and domestica- 
tion of plants and animals. 
Hebrews — type of shepherd people — gave us idea of one God. 
Greeks — contributed ideals of beauty. 
Romans — ideas of law and order. 
Naturally the history of these people cannot be taken in one term with 
children of these ages. The stories are kept simple, the earlier ones made 
real by dramatics and the construction by children of primitive weapons 
and ornaments. 

Pictures and notebooks or scrapbooks help with the later stories of this 
term's work. One main point is emphasized concerning each nation 
studied. 
The geography of Mediterranean countries is made familiar. Exten- 
sive map study begins with this group. 
second term. 

Life in Europe in the Middle Ages as it contributed to one civilization. 
Courage and self-government given us by the Teutons. 
Spread of Christianity laying foundations for modern nations. 
Education fostered by monasteries. 
Europeans learning to work together in Crusades. 
Agriculture protected by the nobles in turbulent times becomes inde- 
pendent later under kings. 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 333 

The aim here is to give enough of the progress of nation building for an 
understanding of modern conditions, and to emphasize the idea 
that the common people tilling the land and finding better ways of 
doing their work were back of all of the progress of nations. 

The children keep notebooks, draw maps and plans, read in different 
books and narrate incidents to the class. 

The physical geography of Europe becomes familiar during this term, 
as mountains and rivers helped in forming history. 

THIRD TERM. 

Modern Europe is studied from two viewpoints : first, as its history 
influenced discovery, settlements, and development of life in America ; 
second, in its agricultural phases, and its trade relations with our 
nation. The countries are studied as follows : 

Germany — the cradle of freedom in religious thought. 

Italy — source of art and architectural inspiration. 

Spain and France as they influenced settlements in America. 

Holland — type of thrifty farming people. 

Dermiark — in relation to agricultural education and progress. 

General political geography of Europe studied. 

FOURTH TERM. 

English history in as far as it laid foundations for our life and institu- 
tions. 

Stories of the making of the English nation. 

Stories of King Arthur and King Alfred. 

King John and the Charter. 

The growth of power of Parliament. 

Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh, as related to America (Lamb's 
Tales from Shakespeare read, and some quotations from actual writ- 
ings, as from Midsummer Night's Dream, read in this connection). 

English farming and what it contributed to the world — better breeds 
of animals. Some valuable plants. 

Geography of British Isles and English possessions in India, South 
Africa, and Australia. 

Third Group, Including Roughly 7th and 8th Grades 

first term. 

Story of building of our continent leading up to physical geography 
which furnishes reasons for many of the events of our political his- 
tory and for phases of our development. 



334 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Early discoveries and explorations, especially the work of Spanish, 
French, English, and Dutch explorers compared. 

SECOND TERM. 

Life of Europeans in America leading to the founding of the United 
States. 

Early settlements of various nature as to purpose and consequent suc- 
cess or failure. 

English settlements compared as to occupations and life of people. 

Causes and results of French and Indian War. 

Cause of Revolutionary War — a struggle for principles long before 
this time held by the mass of English people. 

Main plans of campaign. One or two battles in detail. 

THIRD TERM. 

Birth and expansion of the nation. 

Study of the Constitution and organization of government. 

Acquisition of new territory and development of institutions. 

Conditions leading up to Civil War. 

Map study and geography work continues with these history 

phases. 
Reading often taken from writers of the period — Longfellow, Whittier, 

Lowell, and others. 

FOURTH TERM. 

Saving of the Union and its subsequent industrial development. 
Main plans of Civil War. Results of the struggle. 
Agricultural and commercial development of the United States studied 
by sections : 

Northeastern states — mainly manufacturing — reasons. 

Southeastern — agricultural — cotton, rice, and tobacco — reasons. 

South Central — agricultural — cotton and cattle. 

North Central — agricultural, grains — how the prairies affected 
agricultural development. 

Western — agricultural and mining — fruits, cattle, grain, ore. 

FIFTH TERM. 

Later History of U. S., its possessions and neighbors, also government 
of the State. 
Alaska 



Hawaii 

Philippines 

Panama 



> How we got them and what we are doing with them. 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 335 

Canada "j 

„ ^, . . Main geographical facts studied and occupations 
South Amenca > ^ , , . , ^ 

or people emphasized. 

China J 

The State's Government. 

Local governments of county or town, and district. 

What we need to know to be good citizens. 

This outline covers many points, but it is desirable that 
only the big related and vital facts be considered — those 
which will contribute to citizenship. 

Some may contend that American children should have 
United States history all through the grades. This is 
provided to some extent in the school celebrations of na- 
tional holidays, such as Thanksgiving Day with the story 
of the Pilgrims, Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays with 
stories of their lives. Memorial Day with its tribute to those 
who have defended our nation. The entire school shares 
in such events. We believe that by getting the background 
of broader history the children will be more intelligent 
citizens and farmers, and should they leave school before 
the completion of the course, they will carry intelligence 
and reasoning power to meet their life problems in a more 
vigorous way than they could have done had they been 
dulled by droning over and over the same stories of our 
national life through all of their school years. 

Nature- Study Agriculture. — This subject is presented 
in connection with reading and home geography lessons 
in the lower grades and with home projects with the older 
children. The latter follow some continuous line of in- 
vestigation concerning a farm animal, a flock of chickens, 
a garden plot, or a household science problem carried on 
at home and reported at school. They are frequently 
used as a basis for language and arithmetic work. Read- 



336 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

ing is done along the line of the chosen project and better 
methods are sought. The children are also encouraged to 
make nature collections of pressed leaves and flowers or 
seeds. Bird lists are compiled and the relation of birds 
to agriculture emphasized. The school garden, which 
should be an attractive spot to look upon, is devoted in 
part to experiments in ways of planting and cultivation. 

Bug pests as well as plants furnish nature-study ma- 
terial. Above all, the nature-study work aims to culti- 
vate a love and appreciation of his natural environment 
in the child's heart. Secondly, these subjects are arranged 
to lead the children to become better farmers and wiser 
citizens. 

Nature-study work is given in connection with the open- 
ing exercises, the garden hour, reading, geography, and 
history studies, with an occasional period for special work 
from a simple textbook on agriculture. 

Mathematics. — Although there is necessarily a consider- 
able amount of drill work in the lower grades — given 
largely in the form of games — and of process work with 
those in the upper grades, the children are given concrete 
and practical problems to solve from the first year onward 
— the younger pupils counting, measuring, and keeping 
score in games, the older ones estimating farm crops, profit 
and loss on home projects, and contents of the corn crib 
or wagon body at home. 

The younger children are attracted to arithmetic because 
there is so much of the game element in it, and the older ones 
like it because it furnishes a practical connection with their 
interests in home and school. Good reasoning is emphasized 
above the ability to conjure figures and " get answers." 

Mechanical Drawing and Shop Work. — The older boys 
and girls alike learn the essentials of mechanical drawing, 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 337 

because, as home makers, the girls should be able to plan 
and draw articles needed in the house. The boys fairly bristle 
with projects which they are anxious to carry out for use 
in home or school. Habits of accuracy and definiteness 
are encouraged by the requirement that every article made 
in the shop must be preceded by a careful drawing showing 
dimensions and construction. Leadership is encouraged 
by giving reliable boys charge of certain features of the 
work, as mixing stains or giving out bills of lumber. Boys 
in the four upper grades have regular shop work. Younger 
boys may use the shop under direction of a reliable older 
boy. Noon hours are often spent by eager workers in 
carrying forward some cherished project. Boys can be 
trained to estimate the cost of lumber used, and to pay for 
it in money or by making simple articles for sale, thus 
developing value sense, mathematical ability, and self- 
respect. 

Home Economics. — This includes sewing, cooking, nurs- 
ing, and hygiene. Boys and girls in the five upper grades 
have a class in household and personal hygiene. The school 
provides facilities for shower baths which are much appre- 
ciated by the children, and for washing hands and faces. 
That all may regularly avail themselves of the latter priv- 
ilege two inspectors appointed from among the children 
keep account of the matter of clean hands, — the boys and 
girls running a contest on this matter, — thereby saving 
much possible soiling of school books. 

Water from the home wells is tested and the importance 
of pure water on the farm is imprinted on the pupils' minds. 
Work in home nursing and caring for young children 
is illustrated to the younger girls by the care of the school 
doll and to the older girls by a trip in the neighborhood to 
watch a nurse bathe and dress a young baby. 



338 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

The school bed ^ affords opportunity for lessons in bed 
making and some phases of home nursing. 

The sewing lessons are related to art by means of em- 
broidery designs made in the art classes and applied by the 
girls to pincushions and work bags which they make. Sew- 
ing is related to the courses in hygiene through the making 
of an ideal baby outfit for the school doll, and finds another 
relation in costume making for dramatic and literary pro- 
ductions. 

General Housework. — This training is offered in various 
ways. Each child has a duty to perform about the school- 
house or grounds, and the workers sometimes change tasks. 
These tasks include regulation of the furnace, keeping the 
schoolroom at an even temperature, attending to venti- 
lation, dusting blackboard ledges, sweeping front steps, 
etc. 

Fine Arts. — As has been indicated above, art work and 
appreciation of beautiful things come in connection with 
a number of school subjects. This course aims to help 
the children to appreciate fine pictures, to understand and 
love the beauty in nature about them, and to devise ways 
for improving their home surroundings. 

One lesson a week is given to the whole school. The 
younger pupils often work on a simpler phase of the subject 
given the older ones. 

FIRST TERM. 

Some basic art principles. 

Used in borders or spelling book covers, covers for 

Rhythm written papers, embroidery on articles made in sewing 

Repetition ) class and woodwork constructions made in shop, 

Proportion woven baskets made in connection with Indian 

, studies. 

^ This has its nook in the attic, all of which is utilized in this remarkable school. 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 339 

SECOND TERM. 

Representation. 

Sketching of cylindrical and spherical objects, still life studies in sugges- 
tive outline. Object — clear seeing and a certain amount of graphic 
power (using principles learned last term for placing and spacing). 

THIRD TERM. 

Study of dark and light. 

In borders, decorative panels, and landscape. Application made to 
beauty in the country due to dark and light in natural surroundings 
and to possibilities for this kind of loveliness in farm buildings. 

FOURTH TERM. 

Color. 
Suitable color combinations studied and applied to landscape illus- 
trations for geography papers; to end sheets for booklets made 
in school ; to the planning of a beautiful room for a farm house ; 
to color combinations in dress design. 

FIFTH TERM. 

Picture Study. 

Stories of famous artists — Raphael, Millet, Corot. 
Stories of famous sculptors — Michelangelo, Thorvaldsen. 
Pictures in our schoolroom studied. 

These subjects form the basis for reading and language 
work, and for making booklets of lovely pictures. The 
object is to lead the children to enjoy worth-while things. 

At other places in the curriculum, art appreciation is 
emphasized incidentally, as for instance in connection with 
stories of Greek and Italian people in middle group history 
work ; and with the upper group in American history and 
geography, in studying the Boston and Congressional 
Libraries and their decorations. 

Much illustrative drawing continues at all times for the 
younger children to enable them to express their ideas con- 
cerning stories read and activities connected with their 
home and school life. This, however, might better be 
classed as literary than as art expression, since the thought 
expressed is emphasized rather than form and technique. 



340 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK 

Music. — Sight reading is taught to the entire school and 
many rote songs are learned. These are often connected 
with the season, a holiday, some history epoch under study, 
or a dramatic entertainment given by the children in con- 
nection with other school work. 

At times the school is divided into two groups for singing, 
that the older ones may have more difficult exercises than 
the beginners, and songs appealing to older or younger chil- 
dren taught to small groups. In the music teaching the 
aims are to develop power to read the printed score and ap- 
preciate choice music, as well as to furnish the child with 
another means for expressing his emotions. 

Physical Well-being. — The children have their eyes tested 
regularly and any who are found to need a physician's or 
oculist's help are reported to their parents, and, if necessary, 
other steps are taken to give the pupils a right physical 
basis. Free play and team games are encouraged at recess 
and noon. The rural children need as much natural social 
contact as can be provided for them. On rainy days di- 
rected play is sometimes conducted in the school building, 
because the children need to learn to play together. There 
is much physical activity in the school throughout the 
entire day, as this is natural to childhood; and textbooks 
alone cannot educate. 

Vocational Guidance. — This is everywhere discussed in 
these days. There is room for it in the rural school 
as well as elsewhere. Through lessons in nursing given 
in connection with school work, one girl has recently 
found her sphere of activity. . Without question the small 
school can accomplish important results for vocational 
guidance. It may come partly in connection with other 
studies such as industrial geography, agriculture, and shop 
work. 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 341 

Books for the Rural School. — In many of these fields, 
where attempts are made to adapt educational material 
to the needs of the rural school, few suitable textbooks are 
yet available. Some helpful material is appearing from 
year to year, and even from month to month. For the help 
of those who desire to work along these larger lines for the 
rural boys and girls, the following lists of books for collateral 
reading are suggested : 

Phonics and Word Study Books 

Gordon — A Manual for Teachers of Primary Reading 
Cavin — Orthography 

History and Geography 

Andrews — Seven Little Sisters 

Atkinson — European Beginnings of American History 

Bassett — The Plain Story of American History 

Bengston and Griffith — The Wheat Industry 

Bourne and Benton — hitroductory American History 

Carpenter — Geographical Readers 

Chamberlain — How We Are Clothed 

Chamberlain — How We Are Fed 

Chamberlain — How We Are Sheltered 

Chamberlain — ■ The Continents and their People 

Dopp — The Early Cave Men 

Dopp — The Later Cave Men 

Dopp — The Tree Dwellers 

Gordy — American Beginnings 

Harding — The Story of Europe 

Harding — The Story of the Middle Ages 

Kemp — A History for Graded and Rural Schools 

Nida — Dawn of American History in Europe 

Reynolds — How Man Conquered Nature 

Shaler — The Story of Our Continent 

Starr — The American Indians 

Werthner — How Man Makes Markets 



J 

i 

1 

342 THE RURAL TEACHER AND HIS WORK j 

J 

\ 

Agriculture and Nature Books ] 

Comstock — Insect Life 

French — School Gardening 

Hodge — Nature Study and Life \ 

Mann — Beginnings in Agriculture 

O'Kane — • Jim and Peggy at Meadowhrook Farm 

Stack — Wild Flowers Every Child Should Know 

Wright and Cones — Citizen Bird i 

Household Science 

Bladerston and Limerick — Laundry Manual \ 

Kinne and Cooley — Clothing and Health ^ 

Kinne and Cooley — Food and Llealth \ 
Kinne and Cooley — Flome and the Family 

Kinne and Cooley — Foods and Household Management 1 

Kinne and Cooley — Shelter and Clothing i 
Williams and Fisher — Elements of Theory and Practice of Cookery 

Music 

Smith — The Common School Book of Vocal Music or ■■ 

Melodia Book I and some song collection 1 

Physical Education and Sanitation i 

Bancroft — Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium j 

Bancroft and Pulvermacher — Handbook of Athletic Games '\ 

Curtis — Education Through Play 1 

Curtis — Play and Recreation i 

Curtis — The Practical Conduct of Play \ 
Johnson — Education by Plays and Games 
Lee — Play in Education 

O'Shea and Kellogg — Health and Cleanliness ■ 

' Shea and Kellogg — Hea Ith Ha hits ' 

O'Shea and Kellogg — Making the Most of Life I 

O'Shea and Kellogg— The Body in Health \ 

These books used in connection with any good sets of . 

readers, arithmetics, geographies, United States histories, ] 



DAILY PROGRAM AND MODEL CURRICULUM 343 

and language texts will enable the rural teacher to find most 
of the material necessary for teaching this course. 

There is no book yet which covers the art work, though 
Sargent's Fine and Industrial Arts in Elementary Schools 
is suggestive. It is expected that any wide-awake rural 
teacher will collect clippings, railroad guides, government 
bulletins, and many other kinds of free or inexpensive ma- 
terial for use in the various lines of teaching. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Readers who would keep abreast of the new literature 
on rural life must be discerning in their selection of books. 
They should have their own " country life shelf " compris- 
ing the choicest and best of the rapidly multiplying litera- 
ture in the rural field. It has been impracticable to include 
in the following pages a complete bibliography of country 
life literature. Just enough has been included to give the 
progressive reader the most important books in the field. 
For more comprehensive lists he is referred to the monthly 
reading lists distributed free of cost by the United States 
Bureau of Education. The following pages contain first 
of all three special collections of books ranging in price 
from $12 to $15 each. These " country life shelves " 
should be procured first of all, beginning with No. i. In 
this way the student can build up a valuable collection 
gradually and at a reasonable outlay. These collections 
are followed by a general reading list of works referred to 
in the body of the book and chiefly in the Special Studies. 

Country Life Shelf No. i 

1. Anderson, W. L., The Country Town $1.00 

2. Bailey, L. H., The Country Life Movement .50 

3. Butterfield, K. L., The Country Church and the Rural Problem i.oo 

4. Carney, Mabel, Country Life and the Country School ... 1.25 

5. Carver, T. a., Principles of Rural Economics 1.30 

6. Country Life Commission, Report .75 

7. Crowe, Martha F., The American Country Girl 1.50 

Carry forward $7-30 

345 



346 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Brought forward $7-30 

8. Field, Jessie, The Corn Lady .50 

9. Foght, H. W., The American Rural School 1.25 

10. Hart, J. K., Educational Resources of Village and Rural 

Communities i.oo 

11. Qnick^Yierhert, The Brown Mouse i.oo 

12. Wilson, W. H., Evolution of the Country Community ... 1.25 

$12.30 

Country Life Shelf No. 2 

To the above collection add the following : 

1. Bailey, L. H., Outlook to Nature $1.00 

2. ^MttevfieXd^'K. Li., Chapters in Rural Progress i.oo 

3. Cubberly, E. P., Rural Life and Educatioji 1.50 

4. l£jgg\Q?,tonsin.6.Brvieve, The Work of the Rural School ... i.oo 

5. Fiske, G. W., Challenge of the Country i.oo 

6. Foght, H. W., Rural Denmark and Its Schools 1.40 

7. Gillette, John, Constructive Rural Sociology 2.00 

8. King, Irving, Education for Social Efficiency 1.25 

9. Leake, A. H., The Means and Methods of Agricultural Educa- 

tion 1.50 

10. McKeever, W. A., Farm Boys and Girls 1.25 

11. Men and Religion Movement, Rural Church Message . . 1.00 

12. Plunkett, Sir Horace, The Rural Life Problem of the United 

States 1.25 

$15.15 
Country Life Shelf No. 3 

To the two collections given above add : 

1. Bailey, L. K., The Traini7tg of Farmers $1.00 

2. Betts and Kail, Better Rural Schools 1.25 

3. Coulter, J. R., Cooperation Among Partners 1.00 

4. Curtis, H. S., Play and Recreation for the Open Country . . 1.25 

5. Culter and Stone, The Rural School : Its Methods and Manage- 

ment I.oo 

6. Daven-povt, Eugene, Education for Efficiency i.oo 

7. Fairchild, G. T., Rural Wealth and Welfare 1.25 

8. Haggard, H. Rider, Rural Denmark and Its Problems . . . 2.25 
Carry forward $10.00 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 347 

Brought forward $10.00 

9. Mills, Harlow S., The Making of a Country Parish ... .50 

10. Page, L. W., Roads, Paths, and Bridges i.oo 

II., Tail, Anna B., Comparative Studies for Rural Districts . . .35 

12. Wilson, W. H., The Church at the Center .50 

$12.35 

I. The Rural Life Movement 

A. THE RURAL PROBLEM IN GENERAL 

1. Anderson, Wilber L., The Country Town, A Study of Rural Evolu- 

tion; with an introduction by Josiah Strong. New York, The 
Baker and Taylor Company, 1906, 307 pp., price $1. 
A careful study, based upon official statistics, of the changes at work in 
the country town. Valuable to all rural leaders. 

2. Bailey, Liberty Hyde, The Country Life Movement. New York, 

The Macmillan Company, 191 1, 220 pp., price $1.25. 
A clear statement of the whole rural problem by the Chairman of the 
Country Life Commission. 

3. The Holy Earth, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1916, 171 

pp., 50 cents. 
An inspirational sermon on the holiness of the earth. 

4. Butterfield, Kenyon L., Chapters in Rural Progress, Chicago, The 

University of Chicago Press, 1908, 251 pp., $1. 
A particularly good discussion of the social side of the rural problem. 

5. Carver, Thomas Nixon, Problems of Rural Life, in his Principles of 

Rural Economics, Boston, Ginn and Company, 191 1, pp. 334-382, 
price $1.30. 
An authoritative treatment of the subject by an economist of national 
reputation. 

6. Country Life Commission, Report, Government Printing Office, 1909, 

65 pp., 10 cents. Also reprinted by Sturgis, Walton Co., New 
York, 75 cents. 
This is the report of President Roosevelt's Commission on Country 
Life. It should be the first book on every ''Country Life Shelf." 

7. Foght, H. W., Rural Denmark and Its Schools, New York, The 

Macmillan Company, 191 5, 349 pp., price $1.40. 
An authoritative book describing the remarkably complete system of 
Danish rural schools and their influence on Danish rural life. 



348 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

8. Gillette, John M., Instructive Rural Sociology (revised), with an 

introduction by George E. Vincent, New York, Sturgis, Walton 
Co., 1915, 301 pp., $2. 

9. Hart, Joseph K., Ed., Educational Resources of Village and Rural 

Communities, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1913, 277 
pp., price $1. 
The book contains 16 chapters on many phases of rural life and school 
problems written by experts. 

10. Men and Religion Movement. Rural Church Message, New York, 

The Association Press, 1912, 267 pp., $1. 
A good treatment of the main institutions of country life and their 
allies from the church point of view. 

1 1 . Plunkett, Sir Horace C, The Rural Life Problem in the United States : 

Notes of an Irish Observer, New York, The Macmillan Company, 

1910, 174 pp., price $1.25. 
"A plan of reconstruction of rural life to bring about 'better farming, 
better business, better living. ' " A clear statement of the American prob- 
lem by an Irish authority. 

12. Ross, J. B., The Agrarian Revolution in the Middle West in North 

American Review, September, 1909, Vol. 190, pp. 377-391. 

13. Rural Life Conditions and Rural Education in National Education 

Association, Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, 19 12, pp. 
281-313. Six addresses by educators of national renown. 

14. Wilson, Warren H., Evolution of the Country Community, Boston, 

Pilgrim Press, 1912, 221 pp., price $1.25. 
An excellent treatment of the growth of American community life under 
the heads of pioneer, landfarmer, exploiter, and husbandman. The book 
emphasizes the church point of view and contains an excellent treatment 
of rural religious life, rural morality, recreation, and education. 

B. THE RURAL HOME 

15. Buell, Jennie, One Woman's Work for Farm Women, Boston, Whit- 

comb and Barrows, 1908, price 50 cents. 
A charming story of a pioneer woman in Michigan — a woman who has 
inspired many others to noble living. 

16. Crowe, Martha F., The American Country Girl, New York, Frederick 

A. Stokes Co., 191 5, price $1.50. 
An inspiring book for the country girl, and her mother, father, and 
teacher. Should be read by all. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 349 

C. THE RURAL CHURCH 

17. Butterfield, Kenyon L., The Country Church and the Rural Problem, 

Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 191 1, 153 pp., price $1. 
A concise statement of the church in its relation to the country life 
problem, 

18. Fiske, G. W., The Challenge of the Country, A Study of Country 

Life Opportunity, New York, Association Press, 1912, 283 pp., 
price 75 cents. 
A book written for the Association Press by an authority on the sub- 
ject. 

19. Gill, C. O., and Pinchot, G., The Country Church, New York, The 

Macmillan Company, 191 3, 222 pp., price $1. 
This is a careful survey of Windsor County, Vermont, and Tompkins 
County, New York. From the church point of view. 

20. Mills, Harlow S., The Making of a Country Parish, New York, 

Missionary Education Movement in the United States and Canada, 
126 pp., price 50 cents. 
A charming account of the Benzonia Larger Parish, Michigan. 

21. Wilson, Warren H., The Church at the Center, New York, Mission- 

ary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, 98 pp., 
price 50 cents. 
A brief statement of the country church program. 

D. RURAL ORGANIZATIONS 

22. Buck, Solon J., The Granger Movement, 191 3, Harvard University 

Press, 384 pp., price $2. 
This is a statement of the organization, growth, and decline of The 
Patrons of Husbandry. 

23. Coulter, John Lee, Cooperation among Farmers, New York, Sturgis, 

Walton Company, 191 1, 281 pp., price $1. 
A good exposition of the needs of cooperation among farmers and how 
this may be attained. 

E. RURAL SURVEYS 

24. Ayer, Fred C, and Morse, C. N., A Rural Survey of Lane County, 

Oregon. Eugene, The University of Oregon Bulletin, Vol. VIII, 
No. 14, 1916, 109 pp. 



350 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

25. Branson, E. C, The Georgia Club, United States Bureau of Education, 

Bulletin 191 3, No. 23, Washington, D. C., Government Printing 

Office, price 10 cents. 
A constructive study in rural sociology by students at the Athens, 
Georgia, State Normal School. Should be studied by all who are planning 
to organize rural sociology clubs. 

26. Flexner, Abraham-, and Bachman, Frank P., Public Education in 

Maryland, 19 16, The General Education Board, New York, 176 

pp., free. 
This is the report to the Maryland Educational Surv^ey Commission, 
being a searching study of the whole school system, together with con- 
structive suggestions for reorganization. 

27. Ohio State School Survey Commission, Report to the Governor 

by the Ohio State School Survey Commission. A cooperative 
field study of 659 rural and village schools in 88 counties and an 
extensive study of 9000 schoolrooms and of 395 school systems, 
January, 1914, Columbus, Ohio, The F. G. Heer Printing 
Company. 

28. Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Board of Home 

Missions, Department of Church and Country Life, 156 Fifth Ave., 
New York. Rural Surveys in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, ^lary- 
land, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Ohio. 
These valuable surveys may be procured for a nominal price by address- 
ing Doctor Warren H. Wilson, Superintendent. 



II. Rural School Organization 

A. GENERAL NEEDS AND IDEALS 

29. Betts, G. H., and Hall, O. E., Better Rural Schools, Indianapolis, 

The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1914, 497 pp., price $1.25. 
One of the latest and best of the general rural school texts. Inclined 
to be a little bulky in its treatment of the problem. 

30. Carney, Mabel, Country Life and the Country School, Chicago, Row, 

Peterson and Company, 1913, 405 pp., $1.25. 
This is an excellent book. It is written wholly from the rural life point 
of view, by a broad-visioned country life expert. 

31. Cubberley, Elwood P., Rural Life and Education, Boston, Houghton 

Mifflin Company, 1914, 362 pp., price $1.50. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 351 

This book, which is one of the latest in the field, contains a comprehen- 
sive study of the rural school problem as a phase of the greater rural life 
problem. The book is treated in two parts, the first giving a good view 
of the rural life problem, the second being devoted to the rural school 
problem. This book should be found on every rural leader's book shelf. 

32. Culter, H. M., and Stone, Julia M., The Rural School, Its Methods 

and Management, New York, Silver, Burdett and Company, 191 3, 
365 pp., price $1. 
A general treatise in rural school education, being particularly helpful 
as a work in rural school methods. 

33. Eggleston, J. D., and Bruere, R. W., the Work of the Rural School, 

New York, Harper and Brothers, 1913, price $1. 
Written chiefly for the Southern schools. The book emphasizes the 
school in its relation to the upbuilding of agricultural life. 

34. Foght, H. W., The American Rural School, New York, The Macmillan 

Company, 1910, 361 pp., price $1.25. 
The book emphasizes three things : Modern school administration, 
reorganization of the school plant, and revitalization of the course of 
study. 

35. Kennedy, Joseph, Rural Life and the Rural School, Chicago, The 

American Book Company, 19 15, 186 pp., price $1. 
A good little book containing a concise statement of rural school needs 
and ideals. 

36. King, Irving, Education for Social Efficiency, New York, D. Appleton 

and Company, 1913, 363 pp., price $1.25. 
The book presents in simple language the new social view of education. 
It is full of concrete illustrations helpful to teachers and parents who strive 
for the realization of the new ideal of social efficiency as the educational 
goal. 

37. Leake, A. H., The Means and Methods of Agricultural Education, 

Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 191 5, 265 pp., price $1.50. 
This is one of the Hart, Schaffner, and Marx prize essays for 1913. A 
very comprehensive treatment of agricultural education in the United 
States and Canada. 

B. RURAL TEACHER TRAINING 

38. Foght, H. W., Efficiency and Training of Rural School Teachers, 

Washington, D. C, Government Printing Office, 54 pp., Bureau of 
Education Bulletin 1914, No. 49. Free. 



352 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



39. Monahan, A. C, and Wright, R. H., Training Courses for Rural 

Teachers, Washington, D. C, Government Printing Office, 191 3, 
61 pp., United States Bureau of Education Bulletin 1913, No. 2, 
price 10 cents. 

C. MODERN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION 

40. Cubberley, Elwood P., State and County Educational Reorganization, 

New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914, 251 pp., price $1.25. 

This is the revised constitution and school code of the hypothetical 

state of Osceola. It is a valuable treatise on the fundamental principles 

relating to administration of public education in the United States. 

Should be read by all interested in modern organization of rural schools. 

41. United States Bureau of Education, County Unit Organization for 

the Administration of Rural Schools, prepared by A. C. Monahan, 
Bureau of Education Bulletin 1914, No. 44. 

D. SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION 

42. Cubberley, Elwood P., Consolidation of Schools in A Cyclopedia of 

Education, ed. by Paul Monroe, Vol. II, New York, The Macmillan 
Company, 191 1, pp. 185-189. 

43. Knorr, George W., A Study of Fifteen Consolidated Schools; Their 

Organization, Cost, Efficiency, and Affiliated Interests, Washing- 
ton, D. C, Southern Education Board, 1911, 55 pp. 

44. United States Bureau of Education, Consolidation of Rural Schools 

and Transportation of Pupils at Public Expense. Prepared by 
A. C, Monahan, Bureau of Education Bulletin 1914, No. 30, 
price 25 cents. 
The latest authentic treatise on the subject. 

E. RURAL HIGH SCHOOLS 

45. Brown, H. A., Readjustment of a Rural High School to the Needs 

of the Community, Washington, D. C, Government Printing 
Office, 1 91 2, 31 pp., United States Bureau of Education Bulletin 
1912, No. 20. 
This is a noteworthy illustration of the organization of a modern rural 
high school. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 353 

46. Eliot, Charles W., Changes Needed in American Secondary Educa- 

tion, New York, The General Education Board, 1916, free. 
An interesting statement of the vocational needs in secondary schools 
by the President Emeritus of Harvard University. 

47. Monroe, Paul, Rural High Schools in his Principles of Secondary 

Education, New York, The Macmillan Company, 19 14, pages 
149-154. 

HI. THE RURAL SCHOOL COURSE OF STUDY 
A. GENERAL WORKS 

48. Course of Study for the PubHc Schools, Baltimore County, Mary- 

land. Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins Company, 191 5, 653 PP-> 

price $1.50. 
This course of study is probably the most complete of any prepared 
for elementary schools up to the present time. It would be a valuable 
guide in the hands of any teacher. 

49. Gates, Frederick T., The Country School of Tomorrow, New York, 

The General Education Board, 191 5, 15 pp., free. 
A good statement of the organization and work of the modem rural 
school, though somewhat radical. 

50. Pickard, A. E., Rural Education, St. Paul, Webb Publishing Com- 

pany, 191 5, 425 pp., price $1.25. 
Devoted mainly to the course of study. Very helpful to teachers of 
one-room schools. 

51. Quick, Herbert, The Brown Mouse, Indianapolis, The Bobbs- 

Merrill Company, 1915, 310 pp., price $1.25. 
An inspirational story of a modem school teacher who took a small run- 
down Iowa school, and revitalized its work to answer community needs. 
The book shows the possibilities of what can be done even in the one- 
teacher school if the teacher has the vision and foresight. This book 
should be owned by every teacher. 

B. MANUAL TRAINING AND HOME ECONOMICS 

52. Blackbum, Samuel A., Problems in Farm Wood Work, Peoria, 

Illinois, The Manual Arts Press, 1915, 129 pp., price $1.00. 
A valuable manual for country schools. Contains the new virile kind 
of problems which fit into daily life needs of agricultural people. 



354 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

53. Brace, George M., and Main, D. D., Farm Shop Work, New York, 

The American Book Company, 1915, 285 pp., price Si. 
An excellent manual for teachers and pupils. 

54. Gilbert, Charles B., The Motor Activities in Expression, Educa- 

tional Foundations, 20:7-23, September, 1908. 
"Our entire scheme of manual training and physical culture must be 
recast, along the lines of expression of thought and feeling." 

C. SCHOOL HYGIENE AND COMMUNITY RECREATION 

55. Bancroft, Jessie Hubbell, Games for the Play Ground, Home, School 

and Gymnasium, New York, The Macmillan Co., 1912, 456 pp., 
price $1.50. 
A valuable book for all teachers. 

56. Brown, John, Jr., Outdoor Athletic Tests for Boys, Association 

Press, 124 East 28th Street, New York. 
A valuable little pamphlet published by The Association Press, New 
York. Should be in every teacher's hands. 

57. Curtis, Henry S., Play and Recreation for the Open Country, Boston, 

Ginn and Company, 1914, 265 pp., price $1. 
A valuable book for rural teachers. 

58. The Youth's Companion, Neighborhood Play, Boston, The Youth's 

Companion Publishing Co., 191 6. 
A manual of rural recreation, published in cooperation with the United 
States Bureau of Education, Washington, by whom it is distributed free 
upon application. 

59. Wood, Dr. Thomas C, Chairman, Minimum Health Requirements 

for Rural Schools, Chicago, The Joint Committee on Health 
Problems in Education of the National Council of the National 
Education Association, 191 5, 10 pp. (Distributed free by the 
Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C.) 



INDEX 



[Figures denote pages] 



Agricultural Colleges; preparation of rural 
teachers in, io6. 

Agricultural Extension Agents (County 
Agents) ; place of, in the national exten- 
sion service, 84-85. 

Agricultural Life ; federal and state agencies 
cooperating for the improvement of, 82-86. 

Agricultural Transformation; period of, in 
America, 22-23 ; effect of, in relation to 
agriculture in the Eastern States, 23-24. 

Agriculture- teaching in the Schools; the 
school a laboratory for teaching of, 266; 
in the schools of Ontario, 267. 

Alternation in the Course of Study; grade 
grouping, or alternation by years, 321; 
form of, by classes, 322; Missouri plan, 
illustrating, 323. 

Amenia, New York, Annual Field Day ; de- 
scribed, 311. 

American Medical Association ; cited, 294. 

Anderson, Dr. Wilber; quoted, 52. 

Associated Schools; organization of, in 
Minnesota, 181 ; advantages of, 182 ; 
work of, at Spring Valley, 183. 



B 



Bailey, Liberty Hyde; quoted on nature 

environment, 265. 
Baltimore Coimty, Maryland, Course of 

Study; citations from, 282-287. 
Bishop, E. C. ; cited as head of the Iowa 

Boys' and Girls' Club Work, 276. 
Blue Birds; what they are, 79. 
Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian 

Church of the United States; referred to, 

54, 60. 
"Brown Mouse" Teacher; an exceptional 

teacher, 152. 
Brumbach Library, The; organization of, 

in Van Wert Co., Ohio, 90. 



California Coimty Library Organization; 
the chief points of excellence m,_9j: . 

Carver, Dr. Thos. Nixon; quoted on scien- 
tific agriculture, 30 ; commimity organiza- 
tion, 40. 

Chatfield, Minnesota; Farmers' Coopera- 
tive Laundry at, 49. 

Cherokee County, Iowa, Continuation 
Schools; how and why organized, 213. 

Church, The Rural; its place in rural life, 
52; transition of, 53; what church sur- 
veys show, 53-54; change in ideals of, 
55 ; community service, a test of, 57 ; in- 
terdenominational cooperation of, 57-58; 
federation of, 58-60; revitaUzation of, 
from within, 61. 

Commimity Civics in the Rural Schools; 
the urgent need for, 256. 

Community Schools; importance of good 
understanding in organization and ad- 
ministration of, II. 

ConsoUdated Schools; reorganization of the 
small schools as, 176-177 ; history of, 177 ; 
progress of, in the Middle West and West, 
178; progress of, in the South, 180; par- 
tial consolidation in conservative com- 
munities, 186; complete consolidation 
most satisfactory, 187; illustration of, at 
Rollo, 111., 188; open country consolida- 
tion vs. village consoUdation, 190; some 
ideals to be sought, 191. 

Continuation Schools for Rural Communi- 
ties; why needed, 207; the "Moonlight 
Schools," a form of, 209; adapted from 
the Danish folk high schools, 211; vol- 
unteer schools of this type in Iowa, 213 ; 
vocational schools in Massachusetts, a 
type of, 215 ; in connection with rural high 
schools, 218. 

Cook County, IlUnois, Home-School Proj- 
ects; plan of organization, 274. 



355 



356 



INDEX 



Correlation of School Subjects; great im- 
portance of, 325. 

County Superintendency ; increasing im- 
portance of, 139; difficulties of the old 
system in, 140 ; elimination of, from party 
politics, 141 ; low salary and tenure of, 

142 ; the incumbent of, a rural life expert, 

143 ; assistant supervisors for, 144. 
County System of School Organization, 128; 

illustrated by the Louisiana plan, i2g; 
supervision in, 139. 
Course of Study for Rural Schools; impor- 
tance of the mastery of, 11; of the 
pioneers, 18-19; organization of, in the 
early district school, 20-22; based on 
rural needs, 225; teachers hampered by 
established state forms of, 226; recon- 
struction of, based on rural needs, 227; 
the reconstruction of, a gradual evolu- 
tion, 230; in the late 40's, 232; in the 
school of our childhood, 233 ; in the form 
of a gradual accretion, 235 ; elimination 
in the traditional subjects, 236; inclusion 
of new subjects in, 237; redirecting the 
old subjects in, 237. 

D 

Danish Schools; illustration from, 6; read- 
ing in, 87 ; folk schools adaptable as con- 
tinuation schools, 211. 

District School; work in, in days of the 
household economy farmer, 20-22. 

District Unit of School Organization; de- 
cUne of, 122; reasons for decline, 122. 

Dresslar, Dr. F. B.; his works cited, 163; 
suggestions from, 169. 



English in the Rural Schools; as a subject, 
poorly taught, 238; in form of Enghsh 
grammar, 239 ; chief purpose of, in the 
schools, 240 ; methods in language lessons, 
241 ; as composition work, 242 ; in form 
of spelling, 243. 

Exploitation and Land Speculation; effect 
of, on our agricultural life, 26-27. 



Farm Defenders; what they are, 7(). 
Farm Home ; the heart of the communitx 



44; old-time home group practically 
self-sustaining, 45 ; how the farm home 
emerged from the transition, 46; to keep 
its agricultural earnings, 47—48; labor- 
saving devices in, 48 ; to retain its strong 
sons, 49. 

Farm Tenancy and Absentee Landlordism, 
effect of, on American agricultural life, 
27-28. 

Farmers' Clubs; as unattached organiza- 
tions, 74-75- 

Farmers' Union, The; its educational work, 

73-74- 

Federal Council of Churches of Christ ; re- 
ferred to, 60. 

Fiske, Dr. G. Walter; quoted, 57. 

Fundamental Agencies in Rural Life; what 
they are, 44. 



Geography in the Rural Schools; a new 
emphasis on, 250. 

Gilbert, Charles B.; quoted on English 
language, 245. 

Gonzales, California, Union High School; 
a practical school for rural people, 201. 

Grange, The Farmers' (Patrons of Hus- 
bandry) ; organization of, 69-70 ; its 
Declaration of Purposes, 70; decline of, 
and rebirth, 71-72; its educational work. 



72. 



H 



Harvey, INIrs. Marie Turner; organizer of 
the Porter Community School, 153-158. 

History in Rural Schools; what phases to 
emphasize, 253. 

Home and School Improvement Associa- 
tions; what they are, 75; illustration of, 
in Virginia, 76. 

Home and School Projects; great progress 
in, 272; how done by the boys and girls 
in Oregon, 273'; plan of, in Cook County, 
111., 274; the "Iowa Idea" of, 276; in 
one-teacher schools, 290. 

Home Economics in the Schools; in con- 
solidated schools, 286; as hot lunch in 
small schools, 287. 

Home Gardens; used as an alternative, 271. 

Household Economy Farmer; perfection of 
the family group of, 20; work in district 
school of, 20. 



INDEX 



357, 



Husbandman Farmer; when he came into 
existence, 29. 

Hygiene and Rural Community Sanitation; 
important place of, 292 ; health conditions 
in country and town compared, 293 ; 
conditions of, as depicted by the American 
Medical Association, 294; inspection of, 
in Pennsylvania rural schools, 296; how 
to teach the subject, 299; teaching as 
personal hygiene, 300 ; teaching as school, 
home, and community sanitation, 302. 



Illiteracy in the United States; extent and 
condition of, cited, 208. 

Industrial Clubs for Boys and Girls; their 
organization and purpose, 80. 

Industrial Revolution ; effect of, on agricul- 
tural life in America, 24-25. 

Iowa Plan of Extension Service ; for improve- 
ment of rural teachers, 112. 

Iowa Plan of Industrial Clubs; history of 
the work, 276. 

Isolation; a fundamental difficulty in the 
rural problem, 37 ; efifect on rural organiza- 
tion, 38. 



Jordan, Utah, Rural High School; a type 
of school that is unique, 203. 



K 



Kelley, O. H., Foimder of the Patrons of 
Husbandry; quoted, 69-70. 

King, Dr. Irving; quoted, 46. 

Kirk, Pres. John R. ; quoted on sanitary 
drinking fountains, 169. 

Kirksville, Missouri; rural-school depart- 
ment of normal school at, 103. 



Libraries, Rural; reading and community 
progress, 86-87 ; use of reading in Danish 
schools, 87 ; extension of, through travel- 
ing libraries, etc., 88 ; work of state library 
associations for, 88; organization of 
traveling Ubraries, 89; county library 
system, the success of, 90-91 ; library 
economy, instructing teachers in, 91. 



Logan, Miss Katherine Ross; originator of 
the Iowa township special schools, 213. 

Louisiana Parish System of Organization; 
plan of, cited, 129. 



M 



Manual Arts in the Rural Schools; impor- 
tance of, 280 ; comprehensiveness of, 281 ; 
meaning of general industrial work, 282; 
as manual training in consolidated schools, 
284; as manual training in one- teacher 
schools, 285. 

Massachusetts' System of Vocational Educa- 
tion; a type of continuation schools, 215; 
provides agricultural education to young 
and old, 216. 

Mathematics in the Rural Schools; what 
phases of, must be taught, 248. 

Medical Inspection of Rural Schools; in 
Pennsylvania and elsewhere, 296; a 
reasonable requirement, to make it com- 
pulsory 297. 

Milaca Associated School, Minnesota ; short 
course of, given, 220-221. 

Model Course of Study ; effects of a crowded 
course, 319 ; content of an average course, 
320; aid through alternation by years, 
321; aid through class alternation, 322; 
correlation of subjects in, 325; in the 
Kirksville, Mo., Model Rural School, 
325-343- 

Model Rural School, Kirksville, Mo.; its 
plan of organization, 328; subjects in the 
course of study, 329-343. 

' ' MoonKght S chools ' ' E stablished ; organiza- 
tion of, 211. 

Music and Country People; importance of, 
in every school, 258. 



N 



National Conferences on Teacher Prepara- 
tion, 100. 

National Congress of Mothers; referred to, 
76 ; note on, 78. ; 

National Life; recent changes in, 2. ' 

National Rural Teachers' Reading Circle; 
organization and purpose of, 113. 1 

Nature Study in the Rural Schools ; how it ] 
forms the background of the new cur- ) 

riculum, 261; and the naturalist farmer, ] 

262; phases of, enumerated, 263. ] 



358 



INDEX 



New Jersey "Helping Teachers"; employed 

in, 14S. 
North CaroUna Farm Life Schools; course 

of, study in, 196; history of, 200. 

O 

Ohio System of School Organization ; a good 
compromise plan, 130. 

One-teacher School; what is meant by it, 
150; contrasted with one-room school, 
150. 

Ontario Plan of Teaching Agriculture; his- 
tory of, 267 ; the work taken seriously, 
267 ; outUne of, 269. 

Oregon Plan of Industrial Club Work; how 
it has succeeded, 273. 



Pennsylvania Rural School Health Inspec- 
tion; cited, 296. 

Physical Education in Modern Education; 
forms of, in the rural schools, 311; place 
of, as gymnastics, 312 ; under county- wide 
athletic associations, 313; as organized 
play, 314- 

Pioneers; educational beginnings of, 17. 

Porter School, Missouri; the organization 
of, 153; its teacherage and garden, 156; 
its movable school of agriculture, 157; 
its community activities, 157. 

Press, The Rural ; its influence on rural Ufe, 
91-92. 

Public Conscience; awakening of, in school 
affairs, 100. 



Quick, Herbert; his "Brown Mouse," 
quoted, 152. 



Reading in Rural Schools ; used as a means 

to an end, 246. 
Recreation and Play in Community Life; 

a dearth of, in American rural schools, 

305 ; unfortunate results from lack of, 306 ; 

real significance of play, 307 ; how it may 

be reaUzed, 308; plan of, at Amenia, 

N. Y., 311. 
Rollo, Illinois, Consolidated School; history 

told, 188. 
Rural Boy and Girl Scouts and Camp Fire 

Girls; purpose of organizing, 78. 



Rural Community ; plan for organization of, 

40. 

Rural High Schools; reasons for treating 
as a separate subject, 194; reasons for 
organizing, 195 ; new course of study in, 
196; organization of, in the South, 199; 
continuation courses in, 218; short 
courses in, 219. 

Rural Life Problems ; a chief factor in teach- 
ing-success, 10; estabhshment of a per- 
manent agricultural population, the great- 
est phase of, 29-30; negative side of, 34; 
real heart of, 35-36; underlying principles 
of, 36 ; isolation of, the vital phase of, 37 ; 
relation to rural organization, 38-40. 

Rural Model School; place of, in normal 
training, 104. 

Rural Parent-Teacher Associations; organ- 
ization and purpose of, 76-78. 

Rural Surveys; what they have disclosed, 
32-33- 



Sanitary Toilets ; demanded under the new 
school standards, 171; the "L. R. S. 
Privy" explained, 172. 

School Boards; origin and fvmction of, 132; 
small vs. large boards, 134. 

School Ground Equipment; what is re- 
quired, 315; minimum equipment, 316. 

School Organization and Administration; 
importance of understanding, 119; history 
of, 119. 

Schools of Education; courses for rural 
leaders in, 11 1. 

School, The Rural ; how it fared during the 
rural transformation, 28-29; sanitary 
water supply for, 169. 

Secondary Schools; preparation of rural 
teachers in, 107, 109-111. 

Short Courses in Rural High Schools; im- 
portance of, for the whole community, 219. 

SpeUing in Rural Schools; how it should be 
taught, 243. 

Spring Valley, Minnesota, Associated 
Schools; organization and management 
of, 183-186. 

Standardization of Rural Schools; a means 
for increasing school efficiency, 158; usual 
plan of, followed, 158; what has been 
accompHshed through it, 159; suggested 
requirements for, 161. 



INDEX 



359 



Stewart, Mrs. Cora Wilson ; originator of the 
"Moonlight Schools," 209. 

Supervision of Schools; meaning of, 136; 
history of, 137; in New England towns, 
138; state system of, 145; spread of 
industrial supervision, 145 ; some striking 
examples of, 146-148; future of, 148. 



Teachers' Cottages ; importance of providing 
them, 165; in European countries, 166; 
recent construction of, in the United 
States, 168. 

Teacher, The Rural; not trained for real 
community schools, 3 ; great opportunity 
of, in rural leadership, 5 ; the new rural 
teacher, a professional teacher, 7 ; fitting 
himself for leadership, 9; his place in 
rural reorganization, 41 ; his place in rural 
ideaUsm, 50; in cooperative service with 
the rural pastor, 62 ; as a granger, 73 ; his 
opportunity in promulgating good read- 
ing, 87 ; instructing him in Ubrary econ- 
omy, 91 ; his utilization of the rural press, 
91-92 ; preparing him for rural leader- 
ship, 94; who the teachers are, 95-96; 
his academic preparation, 98; his profes- 
sional preparation unsatisfactory, 99 ; his 
salary, 100; national conferences and 
teacher preparation, 1 00-101 ; prepara- 
tion of, in specialized departments, 102 ; 
preparation of, in agriculture, by normal 
schools, 105 ; preparation of, in agricul- 
tural colleges, 106; preparation of, in 
secondary schools, 107 ; improvement of, 
in service, 112; the Iowa plan for, 112; 
hampered by school boards and established 
state courses of study, 226; his respon- 
sibiKty for health standards in school, 299 ; 
his opportunity in modern play and recrea- 
tion, 309. 

Tobin, County Supt. Edw. J. ; cited in con- 
nection with Home-School projects in 
Cook Coimty, 111., 274. 



Town (township) System of School Organi- 
zation; in New England, 124; in the 
Middle West, 127; professional supervi- 
sion in, 138. 



U 



United States Bureau of Education ; organ- 
ization and purpose of, 80-82 ; work of, 
for rural schools, 82 ; lessons from recent 
studies by, 228. 

United States Department of Agriculture; 
its work for improved agriculture, 82; 
extension service of, 82-83. 



Virginia Cooperative Education Association ; 
organization of, 76. 



W 



Wallace, Dr. Henry ; quoted, 50. 

Water Supply ; sanitary and abundant in all 
rural schools, 169. 

Wilson, Dr. Warren H. ; quoted, 26, 54, 55. 

Wisconsin County Training Schools; prep- 
aration of teachers by, 109. 

Wisconsin; "supervising teachers" em- 
ployed in, 147. 

Wood, Dr. Thomas D.; his work cited, 163. 

Writing in the Rural Schools; methods of 
teaching, 247. 



Young Men's Christian Association; an 
important ally of the teacher and pastor, 
62-63 ; history of, 63 ; work of its county 
secretaries, 63-68. 

Young Women's Christian Association; its 
organization, 66. 

Youth's Companion; its campaign for play 
equipment in rural schools, 316. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



T 



HE following pages contain advertisements 
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